Category Archives: 2023 Iceland & Greenland

DAY 10: DRIVING TO DAELI AND LIFE ON A HORSE FARM : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

Send me my citizenship papers. I’m Icelandic now! I’ve learned key Icelandic words such as “YeeAw” and “YeaYa.” I have eaten fermented shark and not barfed it up as well as imbibed the Black Death. I’ve been intimately acquainted with the land as I’ve walked over A LOT of it. I’ve learned Icelandic sagas. And now I’ve reached the pinnacle of being an Icelander. I’ve ridden an Icelandic horse! Obviously I am Icelandic 🙂

It was a mind blasting wow kind of day today. It involved my very favorite thing—animals. I was on cloud nine. However, the day started our with a drive. We had to get from Stykkisholmur to Dæli. It’s not terribly far but you can’t go very fast on some of these roads.

Since we were going to be spending today and tonight at a horse farm, Neil didn’t horse around. He got right into building up our background information on the Icelandic horse. The most important thing I learned was never, ever call an Icelandic horse a “pony” in front of a horse farmer, or any Icelander for that matter. They may be smaller than our horses but they are not ponies. They are study, hard working horses.

I was shocked to learn that there are more Icelandic horse abroad than there are in Iceland itself. You wouldn’t think that when you drive around the country. You see the horses outside in the fields all over the place. And it’s never just one horse, it’s always several. Genetically the horse is related to the Mongolian horse. They’ve done DNA testing. The horses are sturdily built and work hard. That’s probably why thousands of them were sold to the UK to be used in coal mines. There they had a miserable life. Many never saw the light of day once they went down into the mine. They worked them until they dropped.

Iceland has some interesting laws pertaining to their horses. First, no horse can be imported into the country, even if they are Icelandic horses. No cattle, sheep, or pigs can come into the country either. They barely allow cats and dogs and they have to go through a quarantine. If a horse from Iceland leaves the country for a competition, the owner must sell it overseas as it will not be allowed back in the country. The government is trying to keep equine diseases out of the country. Because of the centuries-long ban on horses coming into the country, the ones in-country have no immunities to common equine diseases. Because of these stringent laws, owners must be extremely selective when choosing horses to compete in competitions out of the country.

The Icelandic Horse Championship is going on right now in the Netherlands. As you would expect, it is never held in Iceland because of the ban on horses coming into the country. I know Neil has watched some of it. I need to remember to turn on the TV tonight and see if I can find it. I would make a rotten horse person here. I wouldn’t be able to chose what horse to send to the competition because I wouldn’t want to part with any of them.

Horse competitions in Iceland are different than in the U.S. Here they don’t race horses or jump them. I don’t believe they have dressage competitions either. That’s a bit too upper class for the Icelanders. They do compete with the different gaits. Many Icelandic horses have five different gaits. They also compete in cross country events.

An other contradiction that I find curious is that while most farmers own horses and do so because they like them, they also see them as a source of meat. The veterinarian we had the blood mare discussion with the other day, eats horse meat. She has no problem with it. She has no problem with the foals from blood mares being sent to the slaughter house. She feels that for 18 months they have led a perfect life. She eats horse meat with a clear conscience. I couldn’t. Growing up our Shetland pony wasn’t just a pet. He was a member of the family. I could no sooner say “Well, he’s had a good life. Off to the slaughter house with you. Tomorrow night we’re having horse steaks!” I’m not as pragmatic as the Icelanders so maybe my citizenship should be revoked 🙂

When we arrived in Dæli, we bypassed the horse farm we were spending the night at and going to the farm of a young man. Reading the itinerary, I had thought they were one and the same. Apparently not. We drove to Storá Ásgeirsá the farm of Magnus. He ushered us in his “bar” where he entertains visitors at night and he told us about himself and his farm.

The very first thing I noticed when I stepped off the bus was the smell of sheep. I grew up around it so I would recognize it anywhere. We were also greeted by a young lamb. It’ mother didn’t have enough milk to feed it so it was being bottle fed by the family. This lamb was something else. It obviously thought it was a dog. It acted just like one. He came right up and licked people in the face. It was hysterical. Magnus’ ten year old daughter was there as well and he followed her around just like a dog. We had a sheep my parents bottle fed and all of his life he followed my dad around at the ranch. Flash Gordon known as Dirty Nose by Samantha, was a good sheep. This one loved his girl.,

Once I could tear myself away from the sheep and the dog (there was a dog there as well), I made my way inside the bar/business area for our talk. On the oppose wall from where we were sitting were several posters of singers. The first was Elvis. Next came Johnny Cash. I knew I had to take a picture of the third one for Sam. It was Freddy Mercury. Then there was one of the Beatles. I think it was John Lennon. Nestled in the corner of the room was a tiny stage with a keyboard and microphones. Obviously this little bar had live music as well as alcohol. It was a happening place.

Magnus was quite down to earth but had a wicked sense of humor. He was comfortable talking to us as a group. With the frequency of OAT groups coming through Iceland, he’s had a good deal of practice. There was a group a day ahead of us and another group a day behind us. They have to push through as many groups as they can because the tourist season is only a few months long.

Anyway, Magnus told us how the farm originally was a Viking farm going back to the first settlement. It has a good river as well as two waterfalls. His parents bought the farm in 1978. Back then it was a dairy. As his parents aged, the dairy business got to be too much so they decided to sell their cows. A gentleman made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and suddenly they were on a dairy with no cows, just horses which they also bred and raised.

Meanwhile Magnus studied to become a carpenter. He had to live for a couple of years in Reykjavik to study with a master carpenter in order to get that certification and earn more money. Being a country boy through and through, as soon as he got his certification, he called his parents and told them to come get him. He was coming home. Then he went to farm school. He realized that he needed to have up-to-date knowledge on farming if he wanted to be a successful farmer. His parents rented him 2500 acres and he started raising sheep. He learned how to shear sheep, shoe horses….He did anything he could to make money. He had bills to pay and sheep were no longer very profitable. People weren’t eating as much lamb and wool had never been a big business. Suddenly sheep didn’t seem like the way to go.

Being a pragmatic Viking, he made the switch to horses. They had always bred them so he already had a good knowledge base. It seemed a good move to make. He not only bred them but trained them as well as letting people ride them. Over time people wanted to stay out at Magnus’ farm as it was a long drive from anywhere. He put his carpentry skills to good use and obliged them by building tiny guest houses.

As the farm became more profitable, he began buying more and more land from his parents and building more places for people to stay. Then came 2021 and COVID. He sold some of his really good horses to make ends meet. It was a tough couple of years but he made it through. Things are going well now. He still has around 69 sheep and 75 horses which he trains and sells. Music is one of his hobbies. For a change this year he only works on the farm. He is doing well enough that he doesn’t need to do anything except tend to his farm.

He is a smart, flexible, and determined young man. I believe he said he was 39. He has two children, a boy 6 and a daughter 10. We saw her but never the son. He must have been with mom. The two are divorced.

After he finished talking with us, his daughter talked to us, answering our questions. Not a bashful bone in that young ones’ body. She was cute as a button and very obviously loved the farm. Her favorite class in school was baking class and she only likes to read books that she likes 🙂

After we ran out of questions for her, she led us into the barn so we could meet some of the horses. One thing I’ve learned about Icelandic horses is that they are very good natured which is why they are so popular. None of these minded a horde of strangers invading their home. Some even stuck their heads out of their stalls so we could give them a scratch. They were all shaggy with hair growing beneath their chins like a tiny beard. Long bangs hung down in their eyes. They were short of stature but sturdy. The Vikings originally brought them to Iceland. They had adapted and learned to thrive here.

As we wandered from stall to stall, our sheep/dog followed right along with us. The daughter (I didn’t catch her names. It was one of those unspellable Icelandic names) thought it was great fun to get down on the ground and let the lamb climb up on her back. It reminded me of a male dog getting randy with a person’s leg. She certainly didn’t mind and her father didn’t appear to either.

After meeting the horses, Magnus took us into the training area which use to be the barn where they stored hay. It was huge. It had to be. The most important crop grown is hay. The farmers have to have enough to feet their livestock through the long winters. Anyway, Magnus had turned his hay barn into a training barn. That way he could still work with the animals even if the weather was bad. It was a good idea.

He had one of his really good horses in the training area with him. I was gobsmacked at the friendship between that horse and the lamb. It was blindingly obvious that they really liked each other. The lamb trotted right over to the horse and rubbed its head against the horse’s nose. The horse rubbed the lamb back. It was so sweet. When they finished their love-in, the lamb sat at Magnus’ feet, just like a dog would do.

Magnus explained how he trains his horses. He doesn’t even start until they are four years old. Until then they live a life of relative freedom. All horses have problems but he tries to focus on what they do well rather than on the problem(s). He’s won trophies so obviously he knows what he is doing. His demonstration horse was brilliant in doing what Magnus asked him to do. It was a joy to watch them.

After the training demo, we filed back into the bar. Now it was time for some singing and music. Music is Magnus’ passion. He even writes his own songs. He’s very good on the guitar as well. His first song was an Icelandic song that was beautiful. His daughter sang with him although I really couldn’t hear her. He tried to teach us the chorus to a couple of Icelandic songs, but he wasn’t very successful. We were bad. Then he segued into American tunes. He sang “Hound Dog” by Elvis, “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, and “Country Roads” by John Denver. I know that song very well, being a die hard John Denver fan. Magnus did NOT know all of the words :-). He gave it the old college try though.

After the impromptu concert, it was time to head to Dæli for lunch. We were coming back later this afternoon for some horseback riding. Neil was nervous about us doing it. I think he worried that one of us would get hurt. Most of the group wanted to do it anyway so he arranged it with Magnus. It was separate from our itinerary so we had to pay for it which was fine. It isn’t every day you get to ride an Icelandic horse!

Dæli Horse Farm was just down the road from Magnus so we were there in no time. We were a bit late so we had to dash right in to lunch. We had salad and a choice of cream of mushroom soup or lentil soup. I went with mushrooms. It and the home-made bread made the perfect lunch. It wasn’t too much or too little.

Rabbi who greeted us is the older sister of the owner. She was taking care of the place for seven days while her brother had a break. She says she is only there 7 days a month. Her husband comes with her and is the chef. So we were lucky as Rabbi is very funny . She got us fed and outside for the horse show which I was really excited about. We had special cushions for the seats and soft blankets to wrap up in. It was definitely cooler here.

We sat on the veranda with the horse track down a short hill in front of us. I liked the program. They played a recording that talked about the history of the horse in Iceland. In the beginning horses were used to move heavy things like hay that people couldn’t carry. They had a girl leading a horse around the track carrying hay. To be honest, I was too busy watching the horses to truly listen to the recording. They had another horse on the track as well that was trotting around the track. The young lady riding it was riding side saddle. This is the first time I’ve seen that in real life. She made it look easy.

Next the young lady brought out a gorgeous tan and black horse. They demonstrated how a horse lying down could get up with a rider on it. That was impressive. The horse made it look easy.

Showing how a horse can stand up with a rider on its back

The last piece of the presentation was a display of the five gaits of the Icelandic horse. They do two gaits that no other horses do. It’s what sets them apart from horses anywhere else in the world.

A female horse came out for the gait demonstration. First she trotted around the ring. Then she galloped. The third gait was walk. I think the rider was giving the mare a breather after galloping. Next came the fourth gait which is only done by horses here. It is the Tölt which is a very smooth four-beat gait. The horse always has one or two legs on the ground at the same time. Our girl demonstrate how smooth the gait is by carrying a full glass of beer around the ring without spilling any of it. That was truly amazing. She did it several times. When asked she replied “It’s not hard to do at all. It’s easy because of the smooth gait.”

The final gait is also only done by Icelandic horses. Not all Icelandic horses do all five gaits either. It is a difficult gait and depends on the horse. The flying pace or Skeið is a two-beat gait. The horse moves the front and back leg on the same side at the same time. It makes the horse look like it is gliding. It’s a demanding so they can only do it in short bursts. It was incredible to see.

Doing the Tölt gait and holding a full beer

We had a chance to talk to the girls after they completed the demonstration. One was a stand-in. Usually Christian’s (the owner) wife does it. Today, however, was her birthday. They were off celebrating so her sister was standing in for her. The other young lady was hired to work at the farm.

I was amazed when I found out the horse demonstrating the gaits was 17 years old. She was a former champion which didn’t surprise me at all. She was beautiful to watch. She seemed to love doing it, too. They did a nice job of answering all of the questions we lobbed at them.

After the demonstration we had twenty minutes to get into our room and unpack before heading out to the back 40 to plant some trees. The farm participates in the government tree program so we were doing it bit to reforest Iceland. I had just enough time to throw my carry-on into the room and unpack my toiletries before it was time to meet in the lobby.

It was a short ride to the planting site. The farm is around 1000 acres and 250 of those acres are dedicated to the forestry program. The government supplies the trees and the farm supplies the place and the labor. They are required to plant 10,000 trees each year. I believe so far this year they have planted over 100,000 which is incredible. They don’t count the trees we plant in their 10,000 quota. By the end of the tourist season though, OAT travelers will have planted over 3,000 trees.

Because the terrain is rough where we were planting, we were planting the larch tree which is larger. It will do better under those conditions. Their oldest tree in the program is 23 years old which tells you how long they have been doing this. They have planted spruce, pine, willow, and birches as well as larch.

Once we reached the planting site, Rabbi gave us a lesson on how to plant the tree. It was more complicated than you might think. However, they had a gadget that made it very easy. This gadget is the reason they were able to plant so many this year. It is basically a long metal tube with two shovel like appendages on the end that form a sort of mouth. You jab that end into the ground. Then you drop the tiny tree through the tube. Then there is a lever that you have to step on to open the shovel/mouth and drop the tree into the ground. That’s probably the most difficult part. Sometimes you have to jump on that lever to get it to open all of the way. You wiggle the device around a bit and then pull it up. Presto chango, you have a tree in the ground. Of course, the planting job isn’t finished yet. You have to compress the dirt around the tree roots to make a seal. Then you sprinkled dried horse manure around the tree and pressed it in. Then you were done.

Rabbi was a natural comedian when explaining the process to us. You didn’t want premature evacuation. That’s when you drop the tree down the tube before Neil could take your photo. I can’t remember what she called sprinkling the manure around the stick instead of the tree (sticks in the ground marked where they wanted the trees to go). There was a third thing to avoid but I can’t remember it either. She put them all in hysterical terms. She also had some of us nervous about having one of these issues!

We all did quite well though. I don’t think anybody had a premature evacuation. All of our trees made it into the ground in one piece. We did something worthwhile and had a fun time doing it. It would be interesting to see what our tree looks like in twenty years.

Our planting duties taken care of, we had to zip back to the main area of the farm to drop off the people who weren’t riding. All of our men had to drop out except for Doug because Magnus didn’t want anybody riding his horses that weighed more than 95 kilos which is around 209 pounds. A couple were very disappointed but they understood that Magnus was just looking out for his animals.

When we arrived back at his place, several horses were in the coral being saddled. His daughter was bringing the last two up to join the others. While they finished saddling up the eight horses, we took care of some paperwork. Then it was time to get matched up with our horse.

Magnus put the more experienced riders on the less placid horses. He asked Doug if he was a Viking or a cowboy. Doug said cowboy so Magnus put him on the largest horse out there. Oops, guess he should have been a Viking. I got a smaller horse named Britzi (not sure how to spell it). He was a nice horse. We communed while Magnus and Neil were getting everybody in their saddle. Britzi and I were last in line so we had time to bond. I got up without much trouble although Magnus gave me a little push. Neil told me “Well done!” I replied, “I’m from Texas!” Of course they both knew it had been 50 years since I had done much riding although we did ride on our Patagonia trip a couple of years ago.

One of our ladies ended up not riding. Sitting on the horse was hurting her hips. She decided that it would be wise to not ride if she was hurting just sitting there. As a result, Magnus moved one of our tiny ladies to her horse. He literally moved her. He picked her up and carried her to the other horse and put her on. It was priceless. She wasn’t sure what was happening. I think Magnus’ Viking blood was showing. They do have a thing about being strong.

We rode around the ring a few times and then headed out the gate. Magnus had told us how to stop the horse but not how to steer. He didn’t have to. They all just followed the horse in front. One of the horses had a flatulence issue. He passed gas long, loud, and often. I felt sorry for the lady riding him. She was a good sport about it though. And poor Doug was riding right behind them. No wonder his horse kept trying to pass the farting horse. Britzi seemed content to be at the back of the line.

We basically rode in a square around one of Magnus’ fields. The two dogs had come with us and were having a great time. One kept going into the stream that ran nearby. The horses weren’t bothered by them at all. For an experienced rider it would have been boring, I’m sure. For us it was just the thrill of actually getting to ride an Icelandic horse. It didn’t matter where we rode.

All of the horses seemed to speed up when we started heading back. They were ready for horse happy hour. We rode them into the ring and Magnus helped us off. After they were unsaddled, we led them into their pasture for the night. They were happy to be there. We were happy as well. And Neil could finally take a deep breath. None of us had fallen off or gotten injured in any way. After we paid, we bid Magnus and his helper from Switzerland goodby and headed back to Dæli. A couple of people rode in the bus and the rest of us walked.

It was a decent walk. It took us over 20 minutes to get back to our room. It felt good to walk though after riding for an hour. I needed to stretch everything out. In the room we got unpacked what we could and then headed to Happy Hour in the lobby.

Before dinner Rabbi told us a bit of the history of this farm. It’s been owned by the family since the 1940s. Her grandparents were born and raised in this valley. When they bought the farm, they didn’t move into the farm house because it was a turf house. They had to build their own farm house. Then with her great uncle running the farm, her grandparents became migrant workers working all over Iceland. In the 1950s her great uncle fell off of a horse and died. Her grandparents had to come back and keep the farm running. When they did, they brought a tractor with them. It was only the second tractor to come to the valley.

As her grandparents aged, they began to need help running the farm. So they placed an add in the paper. A young single mother from Reykjavik answered the ad. It was Rabbi and her mother. Rabbi was almost five at that point. Being a precocious child, her mother told her to be on her best behavior when they arrived at the farm. She managed to reign in her behavior for a few minutes. To this day she doesn’t know what possessed her but she threw herself on her future grandfather’s lap, pushed the tip of his nose up with her fingers, and said “You’re a piggy!” the two were fast friends after that. Eventually the farmer’s son fell in love with Rabbi’s mother and they married. They never left the farm. And Rabbi had a fabulous relationship with her new grandfather. Her grandmother had a rather stern countenance so she trod the straight and narrow with her. Rabbi’s mother and the farmer’s son had two sons. The youngest one is Christian who owns and runs the farm now.

In 2017 they built a summer house and entered the tourism business. Then Rabbi’s mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. They kept her at home and took care of her which I know was tough. She passed away in 2020 right before COVID. In 2021 they had their first OAT group and business has picked up since then. This year is their biggest year yet for tourist.

The farm hit a patch of bad luck though this year. Their sheep got infected with scrapie which is a degenerative disease. The entire flock had to be put down. That’s all you can do. Then you can’t have any more sheep at that location for two years. So it was quite a blow. This particular valley seems to be prone to animals in it catching scrabies.

Rabbi herself is a teacher. She also paints and has a degree in tourism. Typical of every Icelander I’ve met, she is also musically inclined . And that is the story of Dæli farm.

Rabbi’s husband David fed us well for dinner. We had several different types of salad and veg. For protein you could have fish or lamb or both. There were also potatoes and other root vegetables. The brownies for dessert were fabulous.

Tomorrow we leave this beautiful spot and drive to the northern most town—Akureyri. As much as I hate leaving here, I’ll be glad to go. Something in the air really has my allergies going. My eyes are driving me crazy. I want to rip them out of my head. But I will never forget my perfect day here with lamb/dogs, trees, and Icelandic horses.

DAY 9: STYKKISHOLMUR & THE SNAEFELLSNES PENINSULA : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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We were explorers today finding all of the treasures of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. And there were SO many treasures! The peninsula is like the rest of Iceland—fabulous! Since we were driving through so many fishing villages on our exploration, we started off our morning with a talk about fishing.

In the 15th century the English came here to fish. They are the first example of long distance fishing. As the centuries passed, other countries joined in. It reached the point that Iceland became concerned that their waters were going to get overfished. That is a legitimate concern. In order to protect their fish, they extended their territorial waters limit. Not everybody liked that.

The English especially didn’t recognize the new boundaries and kept fishing according to the old territorial limit. This began the first of four Cod Wars between England and Iceland. As the English ignored the new limit, Iceland retaliated by moving their territorial limit out to 200 miles. That really cheesed the Brits as Neil would say (he may have lived in Iceland for 50 years but he still has a lot of British and Irish idioms in his vocabulary).

Now Iceland only had three coast guard boats that could patrol the waters around the country. It made it difficult for them to always be at hand when England’s or any other country’s fishing vessels broke the limit and when they did catch somebody, it was difficult to make them stop fishing. So Iceland developed the cutter which was a device that could be towed in the water near the illegal fishing vessels and it would cut the lines to their nets. In retaliation the British boats began ramming the Iceland boats. Things were heating up quickly. Iceland threatened to shut down the U.S. base if they didn’t talk some sense into England. So the U.S. called England and told them to let Iceland have their fish. To this day Icelanders claim victory in the battle with the Brits in the last Cod war. And their territorial limit is 200 miles.

The Brits weren’t the only ones with a vested interest in fishing in Icelandic waters. The French and Dutch also fished here. The French even built a hospital in one fishing village along with a cemetery. And in another village the street names are in Icelandic as well as French.

I didn’t know this but in 1472 as a precursor to his voyage to the New World, Columbus sailed to Iceland. He knew that Erik the Red had sailed from Iceland to Greenland so he wanted to scope things out. Today while on our travels, we saw the outside of the church which has a painting of Columbus talking with the priest. We didn’t get to go see it unfortunately.

As we drove the peninsula, we made periodic Kodak Moment stops. We had brilliant blue skies and very little wind. Really, we have been so blessed with weather on this trip. Today was just picture perfect. Every where I looked was scenery worthy of a photo.

Off in the distance we could see the glacier clear as day. The snow and ice at the peak of the volcano glistened in the sunshine. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop the bus and take a photo. You can’t pull over a bus here just any old where. I tried a few through the window but they didn’t do justice to the actual thing. This was the same glacier we had glimpsed yesterday driving into the peninsula—Snaefellsnesjokull. (If you see the suffix “jokull” it means glacier. I like the way they do that here.) As beautiful as the glacier was today, it is disappearing at an alarming rate. If it keeps receding the rate it has been, this glacier will be totally gone in approximately 20 years.

The volcano itself is considered to be an active volcano. I’m not sure why exactly. This particular one hasn’t erupted in 2,000 years. That doesn’t seem active to me.

Many Icelanders believe that this particular glacier is one of the seven centers of power. It has something to do with ley lines. I’m not sure what happens to that “power” if the glacier vanishes. Is the power because of the glacier or the volcano or is it just the location? I’m not really sure. I’m not up on let line knowledge 🙂

Some of what we saw was a repeat from yesterday. There are only so many roads in this area. We had already driven one on the way to the shark museum. We passed by the Beserker Lava Flow again. We even passed a machine wrapping hay bales in the plastic covering. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. It was nifty.

One of the stops we made was around around Breidavik. It was mostly a stop to get a photo of the glacier but at this point, clouds had covered the peak and you couldn’t see it. Go figure. Neil shook his head at our bad luck. However, we did get another story here so it was worthwhile.

We were stopped at the farm where Iceland’s first serial killer lived, Axlar Bjorn. He was a farmer who lived in the 15th century. He enjoyed entertaining guests in the area on vacation. He would kill them, steal their clothes, money, and horses. Some he buried in a manure pit, others he threw into a leech pit. It is believed he may have murdered as many as 18 people. He was finally caught when he tried to murder two brothers but they got away and informed the authorities. People had been suspicious of him anyway as he had an extremely large number of horses.

He was executed in 1492. All of his bones were broken before he was killed. After his execution his body was divided into three pieces and buried in different parts of the country. Nobody wanted his ghost to come back to haunt them. It isn’t known why he was such a bad man, but theories abound. When his background was checked, a theory evolved around his mother (yes, the mother ALWAYS gets the blame!). Apparently when she was pregnant with Axlar, she had a horrible craving for blood–human blood. Axlar’s father would slice open his leg and let her suck the blood out of the wound. Who knows if this is what made him into a killer. My personal opinion is that his mother was nuts and so was he! However, bad genes ran in the family. Axlar was married and had children. His son was executed for rape and later Axlar’s grandson was executed. His wife was also convicted of murdering the travelers as well. She was pregnant at the time so they held off executing her until after she had the baby. What a family!

On this gruesome note, we headed further down the peninsula to Arnastapi where we stopped for a lovely hike along the cliff. . I know I have already said several times that the scenery in Iceland is breathtaking, but it truly is no exaggeration. Along the cliff it was very similar to Hawaii with the dark basalt cliffs stretching up out of dark, crystal blue waters.

You really couldn’t stop feasting your eyes on the sights before you. It was also reminiscent of the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland. I’ll throw in the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland as well because of the hexagonal basalt columns shooting up from the water. Words cannot do justice (at least mine can’t) to the picture postcard vistas in front of us. Literally you would take two steps then snap a picture.

We were catching the water at low tide this morning. We saw a few fissures where you could tell the water had receded. Kittiwakes fussed as they darted among the cliffs. Seagulls dived and soared on the air currents. Neil cracked me up. He was all excited. He had spotted a seal. On closer examination with binoculars, it turns out it was a seagull lying down on the rocks by the water. We all got a good laugh at that one. Further down was the famous “Eternal Kiss” sea arch. It really does look like two trolls kissing. Neil didn’t tell us that; Gudrun had told us last time. Neil called it Iceland’s Arc de Triomphe. I like trolls better.

We finished up our stroll and Neil could heave a sigh of relief. There have been two horrible mishaps here recently. Six weeks ago an OAT driver fell from the cliff. Then yesterday an OAT traveler fell down and knocked himself out. They had to take him to the hospital. I assume he is doing okay. The driver died. Yikes! The walk was really easy so it’s bizarre to me that there have been mishaps here. Neil made sure that none of us got close to the edge. I don’t blame him.

We all made it safely to the statue of Bardar Snaefellsnes. The statue is huge and doesn’t really look like a person. It makes better sense when you hear his sage. Yep, another story. This IS Iceland, after all 🙂

Bardar Snaefellsnes was a huge man whose father was a giant and his mother human. He worshipped in Troll Church, sang in a cave, and bathed in his own pool. However, one day his daughter was irritating her two cousins. They convinced her to climb onto a piece of drift ice as a prank. They promised her she would be okay. Well, the ice drifted out to sea. The boys, terrified, kept mum about what had happened. However, Bardar knew his daughter had been with them and eventually they confessed. All believed that the girl was dead. Bardar, insane in his grief and anger, threw one nephew off the cliff (where we had been hiking). He threw the other one into a gorge. Sanity came back to him and stricken over his daughter’s death and what he had done, he walked into the Snaefellsnes glacier and was never seen again. He is know considered to be the Man of the Mountain and the Guardian Spirit to Snaefellsjokull. As a side note, the daughter did not die but landed on Greenland where she married a prominent man and lived happily ever after. Finally a story that ends well!

We took a group photo standing here in front of his statue. It seemed appropriate. In the background was a mountain that I had mistaken for one in “Game of Thrones.” Boy, did I feel stupid. I still like the mountain which was rather pyramid shaped. We did our group picture in front of it last time.

We traveled down the road just a little ways to our lunch stop although it wasn’t quite noon yet. We were eating at the Arnarstapa Meeting House. They serve typical Icelandic lunches here so we were in for a treat.

We had a choice between lamb soup and fish stew. All of us except our vegetarians went with lamb. It was very tasty and the bread was great as well. I’ve been happy to notice that most of the meals in Iceland are much smaller than we normally get on trips. That’s a good thing. The portions are always too large or there are so many courses that you can’t possibly eat it all. Here it’s been good. Soup for lunch is perfect. Then you don’t go into a food coma. We don’t always have dessert either which is good, too. Lunch did not include dessert but you could purchase an Icelandic pancake with cream and raspberry jam inside it. A few people ordered it. They said it was delicious. It looked good.

I have to mention the Ladies Room here. Neil asked if we had seen the artwork in there. None of us had. Of course we had to check it out. Inside was a needlework piece of a naked man reclining full length on his side one hand strategically placed. A cigarette was between two fingers of his other hand. We all had to laugh and then wonder what the men had in their toilet. It turns out that they had absolutely nothing.

We were then back on the bus for a short stop at a place of historical significance. On the way we passed a building with steep gables and a turf roof. Neil told us it was quite authentic. More authentic than the house with the turf roof we had seen in Selfoss on our first day. That wasn’t our objective though.

Our objective was a touch of Icelandic women’s history. We stopped at the site of the farm of Gudrídur Porbjarnardóttir who was the wife of Porfinnur. This was the farm she was born at. The farm itself is historic in that it dates back to the settlement. However, it was Gudrídur we were interested in. She was a world traveler. She is acknowledged as one of the most far-reaching women in the world. She lived at the time the country switched to Christianity.

According to Icelandic sagas, she sailed eight times across the ocean. She even traveled on foot through Europe. After her marriage she went to Greenland with her spouse. From there they sailed to Vinland (the New World). It is in Vinland that she gives birth to a child. She is thought to be the first woman of European descent to have a baby in the New World. That baby was Snorri who went on to write sagas and become a Law Speaker. Later in life she went to Rome. One of the sagas related that after Guðríður returned from Rome, she became a hermit and a nun in Glaumbær until her death.

There was a lovely statue of her and Snorri at the site of the old farmstead. I particularly liked the signage showing her voyages. That was quite interesting. She sounded like am amazing woman.

From there we headed into Snæfellsjökull National Park. There was a small museum as well as a lighthouse we could peruse. The museum was interesting. It covered many things that Neil had already talked about but it was nice to see it in the museum.

The museum had a large section on fishing which is no big surprise. Fishing is crucial on the peninsula. Men on the farms would come work on fishing boats in the winter when there was little farm work to be done. What there was the wife and children took care of. The men came to the fishing stations to earn extra money. First they had to be tested to see how strong they were. Men were required to pick up a huge stone neck high and then place it on a ledge that was waist high. They still use this test in the strong man competitions. Icelanders have a real thing about being strong. It goes back to their Viking heritage. Anyway, they have to test the men because they must be able to row a small boat all day long out in the rough winter seas. Yep, they definitely needed to be strong.

Doug and I wandered through the displays and then went outside to enjoy the outdoors and the fabulous weather. We walked down to the lighthouse but it was locked up. Then we just wandered around. We saw a sea stack that looked like a Viking ship at full sail as well as two towers rigged with communication wires like Doug use to do in the military. It was strange to see that here.

We loaded up the bus once again (we did a good deal of climbing in and out of the bus today) and continued our travels around Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Neil had been keeping an eye on the glacier. It had shown the south side which was cool but had little snow and ice. But now we had come around again facing the north side. Bingo! The clouds were gone and we had a great view of the north portion.

Of course we made a stop. All of us were chomping at the bit to get a photo of Snaefellsjokull. We all snapped away. Then we took a group photo with the glacier. Neil also took individual photos there as well.

Our education continued back on the bus. We learned that there is a shortage of wool as Iceland is exporting a good deal of it to Scandinavian countries. So that makes it expensive here. There are fewer sheep being raised as well since people aren’t eating as much lamb. Here they raise the sheep for meat. The wool is secondary.

The country is considering wind energy for the winter months. That makes sense. The wind blows almost constantly. Currently they are running hydro electric plants on glacial rivers. They don’t run as much in the winter because the glacier isn’t melting and creating the huge force in the rivers. They want something to make up the difference. Plus if the glaciers are receding, they need something to generate power if they disappear altogether.

Following Icelandic tradition, Neil sent his three children to the country to work for the summer. That tradition is fading away now. Farms are more mechanized so there isn’t as much need for untrained laborers. Plus there is the issue of liability if a child should be injured. I can understand that. However, this generation of children are growing up without that strong sense of connection with the land that the previous generations have because they worked the land. That’s sad.

This discussion brought us to the tiny village of Hellissandur. Its main claim to fame was the murals decorating most of the buildings. A beautifully painted ram’s head decorated the end of a building next to the road. Another one had a Viking in a longboat as well as orcas and a snow-covered erupting volcano in the background. Yet another series told short stories about the peninsula and Iceland. One talked about Axlar the serial killer. Another was of Froda the Haunted. A small building was covered with paintings of birds. Each was unique and beautiful in its own way. It was a nice stop.

On the bus we learned how the mink came to Iceland. They are not native here, only the arctic fox is. However, in the 1930s some entrepreneurs thought it would be smart to bring mink to Iceland so they could start making mink coats and make their fortune. They brought some over but the mink business did not take off. So they released the animals out into the wild thinking they would die. Nope. The little buggers thrived. Now they are a pest as they go after the eider duck. However, they are trying again with mink and there are a few mink farms around.

The eider duck is also interesting. Eider down anything is extremely expensive. These ducks are very particular. They have to trust a human before they will stay with them. Eider farmers guard these ducks like the family jewels. The ducks shed the valuable down in the nest beneath themselves. The farmer has to pick them up gently and gather the down beneath them. There is total trust between farmer and duck. That’s a pretty darn unique bond.

We had one more good chance to get a good shot of the glacier. We made it to the correct spot and Jón pulled over. It was beautifully displayed right before us. This was even better than where we did our group photo. We were all gobsmacked. And Mother Nature was kind to us—there wasn’t a cloud in sight.

Even better there just so happened to be a small church in front of the volcano. It was the typical small church with a red roof. We have seen them everywhere we have traveled in Iceland. When the country converted, the chiefs found it profitable to have a church on their farm. It was a source of income for them. They got so much of the tithe. If one of their sons was a priest, they made even more. So that’s why there are so many small churches. This one, however, had a particular significance to us. This is the church with the painting of Columbus and the priest. We couldn’t see the painting but at least we got to see the church. And what a perfect location, right by a nifty glacier! The two together made a phenomenal photograph.

Snaefellsjokull and church with Columbus painting

We had one last major site to see on Snaefellsnes—Kirkjufell—the most photographed mountain in Iceland. This is the mountain that was featured in “Game of Thrones.” I’m pretty sure it has been used in other films and TV shows as well. I can understand why film makers would want to use it. It’s an impressive sight.

This mountain is known as Church Mountain because they thought it resembled one. I don’t think so but what can I say. Back in the old days, they called it Sugar Top. I’m assuming because of cloud coverage at the top. The mountain is also special because the lower part of it contains fossils that go back to the Ice Age. That’s fascinating. You can climb Kirkjufell but it takes skill and somebody with no fear of heights. Coming down is suppose to be harder than going up. I’ll pass :-).

Lots of people were here to see this most famous of Iceland’s mountains. There were even three cruise ships in the harbor of the small fishing village. They were smaller cruise ships which is good. Just one of the really big ones would completely over power the small village.

After admiring this star of a mountain, it was time to start heading back to the hotel. Of course Neil kept us entertained as Jón navigated us back to Stykkisholmur. We learned that swans migrate here for the summer. They fly here from the UK.

We noticed along the way lots and lots of what the locals call grass cotton. It looks like cotton but it isn’t. However, the people use to gather it up and makes wicks out of it for candles.

We learned a bit about Erik the Red. He was the Viking that started a colony in Greenland. He was actually banished from Iceland for committing murder. Since he had to leave, he took a group of settlers with him. One of those was his son Leif the Lucky. Leif didn’t stay in Greenland but pushed further west and became the first European to touch foot in the New World. He tried to establish a colony there but it wasn’t successful. So he gave up and returned to Greenland where he took over from his father.

And did you know that like Snow White, James Bond is Icelandic? That’s right, the real 007 had Icelandic heritage. His mother moved to Winnipeg, Canada which happened a lot. She was single and pregnant so when the baby was born, she put it up for adoption. It just so happened that the couple who adopted him was also Icelandic. They named him William. His new last name was Stevenson. He grew up to work as a spy during WWII. He was one of the people that helped create the OSS which was the precursor to the CIA. His military serial number was 007. AND he was friends with Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond novels. That’s a pretty convincing case.

Before we arrived in Stykkisholmur, Doug and I had one more thing we wanted to accomplish today. We wanted to hike up Helgafell. I had climbed it last time. Doug was itching to do it. So we made arrangements with Neil. The bus drove us to Helgafell and dropped us off. Neil helped us pay the fee, then they headed on to town. It was up to us to walk all the way back to the hotel. Neil said it was around an hour walk.

Now Helgafell was considered highly sacred in heathen times, and people were believed to enter the mountain upon their death. It was mentioned in the Book of Settlement. From 1184 to 1550 there was an Augustinian monastery at the top of the hill. Parchment manuscripts written here have survived. At the top is a small remnant of a wall. They believe this is a part of the monastery.

Helgafell is now privately owned and has been in the same family since 1888. Folklore says that if you climb Helgafell without looking over your shoulder, and without saying a word, all the way to the center of the stone ruins on the hilltop, and look to the east, then you can make three wishes. You must never tell anyone your wishes, and it must be made with good intentions. You can’t wish for winning lottery numbers.

So that was our goal. The climb up wasn’t too bad. I did have to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. I really need to get into better shape! I made it though. I almost blew it and talked to the dog sitting next to the path. I caught myself just in time. Doug, of course, beat me up. He had to point me in the right direction for east. I was close :-). We did our silent wishing and then drank in the scene. It felt like you could see forever up there. It was all luxuriant land, so green. Mountains loomed up majestic and stark behind the fields. Water framed the other side of the view. The sun was shining, I made my wishes….it was all perfect except for that four mile walk back to the hotel 🙂

The walk back actually wasn’t too bad. It did seem to take forever before we saw the church that’s near the hotel. It has a very high steeple that you can see from far off. It was pleasant walking though. Fields were to either side of us. I was face-to-face with a ram who was outside the fence. He condescended to allow me to photograph him.

There was no shoulder for us to walk on but traffic was light. And when a vehicle was approaching us on our side of the road, it left us lots of room. When we made it back to the hotel I was sweating and tired but glad I had done it. Doug had raced ahead of me to make sure he got our beers before the end of Happy Hour. It sure tasted good!

Dinner was on our own. We decided on a junk night. At the Bonus grocery store we bought chips, dip, pepperoni, and cashews. While I took that up to the room, Doug grabbed us each another beer. It wasn’t the dinner of champions but it tasted awfully good 🙂

After eating we had to pack up as we are heading to a horse farm in the morning. I am so excited. We get to spend time with these beautiful animals and have a chance to ride an Icelandic horse tomorrow afternoon. I will be a happy camper.

DAY 8: DRIVING TO STlYKKISHOLMUR : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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It’s really hard to know where to begin today. For a travel day, we have done and heard a great deal. My fingers ache at the thought of trying to type it all up :-). However, I will give it my best shot.

The day dawned beautiful yet again. And today it stayed gorgeous all day long. There has been nary a cloud in the sky every where we traveled. Temperatures have been quite mild as well. I wish we would have had some of this weather at the glacier and the last waterfall of Skogafoss yesterday but you can’t have everything.

I dreaded breakfast this morning because yesterday’s had been a goat rope. The breakfast room was busting at the seams with people standing in line to get their food. The hotel hosted a multitude of tour groups yesterday. We needed to get in and out to finish packing up our carry-ons before being on the bus by 8 AM. Breakfast didn’t open until 7. We were going to have to eat during the prime rush time.

Today, however, couldn’t have been more different. There were very few people, mostly our group, getting their first meal of the day. It was a pleasant surprise. As a result, I was able to kick back and enjoy breakfast. Then it was back to the room to finish tucking my electronics in my bag and double checking to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. Doug and I got out to the bus extra early because he wanted to ride in the front seat. Since we were the first on the bus, we were in luck.

While we have been driving these last few days, Neil has been giving us language lessons. Actually, he incorporates language knowledge into many of our discussions. We have learned that “vik” means bay. “Nes” is peninsula. “Foss” is waterfall. “Ey” which is pronounced “Ou” means river. Today Neil taught us “thank you” and “good by.” “Thank you” is takk. “Bless” is goodby. If you want to say “thank you and goodby,” you say “takk o bless.” The challenge is not to say “Taco Bell!” Good morning/afternoon is one of the first phrases he taught us. It is “Góðan daginn.” The easiest way to pronounce it is by saying “go down dyin” really fast. Of course we had to learn the word for “cheers” as well. It is Skál! which is pronounced like scowl. Neil hones our knowledge by quizzing us all of the time on the various words.

We have also learned that sheep were brought over by the Vikings. They lived off of lamb. Sheep are still an important part of the economy although lamb popularity is dwindling as more people are eating chicken these days. The Vikings didn’t have dogs to herd the sheep. Instead they depended on a special breed of sheep. It seems to have a 6th sense and knows when danger is around. The other sheep seem to follow these lead sheep. I have no clue why. These lead sheep always seem to know when bad weather is coming. They lead the other sheep to shelter.

By the 19th century, people in Iceland had all but forgotten how to swim. That worried people as it was a part of their national identity. In small rural communities, people began building “pools” directly in the land. The bottom was dirt while the sides were sod. We saw one of those old pools while we were driving yesterday.

And those sea stacks we saw at the puffin cliff? They were trolls who were pulling a boat. They lost track of time. Unfortunately for them, the sun came up before they could get under cover and turned them into stone.

We soon came to the outskirts of Reykjavik which translates into smoky bay. Ingólfur Arnarson first settled here. He believed in letting fate and the Norse gods decide things so he threw two totem poles decorated with the Norse gods into the the water as he was sailing to Iceland. Then he sent slaves out to find where they had washed up on the beach. It took the slaves three years to find them but eventually they did. He sailed into the bay and saw what he thought was smoke. Actually it was steam from the geothermal activity in the area. Anyway, he believed it was smoke so he named his settlement Reykjavik. Today 270,000 people live there. It is the only true city in Iceland. In 1900 there were only 6,000 people in the city so it has seen tremendous growth in the last 100 years.

After we bypassed Reykjavik, we came to Hvalfjardargong which is a fjord. We were in for a treat. The Icelanders had constructed several years ago a tunnel that goes beneath the water of the fjord to the other side. It cut an hour off of the journey along the coast. The tunnel is 5,770 meters long and is 165 feet below the surface. It opened in 1998 and is one of the few toll roads in Iceland.

Now the common name of Hvalfjardargong Fjord is the Whale Fjord. Since Iceland is home to the saga, of course, there was a story behind the name 🙂 Way back when three men went out into the fjord fishing. Their boat capsized and only two made it back to shore.

A year later the man thought to have died in the fishing accident suddenly appeared. As he was still wearing the red hat he was accustomed to wearing before he went missing, people knew it was him. However, he had absolutely no memory of the year he had been gone. Time passed and the man fell back into his old life. But one day a strange woman appeared. She was one of the fairy folk and she claimed to be the one who had saved him. She also claimed that he was the one who made her pregnant. When she gave birth, she demanded that he take the child and raise it. This was the custom of the fairy folk when they gave birth to half human babies.

Well, the man was furious and categorically refused to take the child. The woman, enraged, cursed the man saying ” Rauðhöfði” which means red-headed. She also said he would become a vicious beast. The man, so cursed, rushed out into the fjord and turned into a monstrous whale that killed everything it came across.

People were terrified of the whale in the fjord but one day a sorcerer showed up who was blind. He had the people lead him to the fjord. He placed his walking cane into the murky waters and stirred. He stirred and stirred until the waters danced chaotically around. Then lo and behold, the villagers could see the back of a whale as it swam furiously up the waters in the fjord. The man kept stirring. The whale, helpless in the force of the blind sorcerer’s spell, was forced to keep swimming. He swam to the back of the fjord, up the river draining into the fjord, and at last, it tried to swim up the waterfall at the beginning of the river. It was here, exhausted, the whale perished.

We learned historical facts about the fjord as well. It was crucial to the WWII war effort. Before we were in the war convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean would regroup here. We used these convoys and our men stationed in Iceland as a way to hide the aid we gave the UK and Russia. Germany thought the supplies were for our troops. They were for the other two countries in reality. In October of 1941 the Reuben James was on its way to Iceland with a convey. Germany wanted to sink the merchant ship but missed and sank the Reuben James instead. Why the U.S. let that go without any retaliation, I’ll never know.

The mouth of the fjord was well protected during the war. A huge net was strung across the opening and it was seeded with mines. When a convey arrived, the net was opened up and the ships could sail into the fjord.

After we crossed the fjord we still had to drive for a while before reaching our first destination of Borgarnes. It is a small town with lots of saga history. In fact the Saga of Egil is so important to the town, they have cairn markers all over town where various events in it took place. Now that is dedication to a story. I do believe this one is somewhat grounded in reality.

I should explain that for hundreds of years the Vikings had no written language. Theirs was an oral tradition. Stories were passed down from generation to generation. Finally people began recording them some time around the 12th and 13th centuries. They called them sagas. Since they were not original stories but recorded from the oral stories, no author’s name was put on them although people have guessed who they might be. Icelanders can still read these sagas because Icelandic is the closest language around these days to the original Viking language.

The saga revolving around Borgarnes tells about the family of Egil. His father founded the town. Skalla-Grim, his old father, and their slaves were sailing near this portion of Iceland when Skalla-Grim’s father died. Skalla-Grim threw his body overboard and declared that where ever the body washed up on shore, that’s where he would build his farm. Then he sent his slaves to go find the body. I’m sure they were thrilled with that job.

The body was found at Borg and Skalla-Grim, true to his word, built his farm here. In time he married and had two sons. One was fair of face and deed. The other had a fearful countenance and a vile temper. Skalla-Grim himself was a skin changer. When the sun went down, he would change into a monster.

When Egil was seven, he was playing a game with another boy. The kid made Egil very angry. He killed the boy. When he got home his mother said, “He’ll be a very good Viking.” Years later Egil and his best friend were playing with Skalla-Grim outside. As the sun went down, Skalla turned into a monster and killed Egil’s best friend. Then he turned on Egil. Before Skalla could kill him, Egil’s Irish nanny managed to distract him. Skalla-Grim chased her all the way to the fjord where she jumped in to get away from him. Skalla grabbed a huge rock and threw it at her. It crashed into her back. Neither she nor the rock was ever seen again. That night as the family was eating dinner around the table, Egil got up, fetched his ax, came back and killed his father’s favorite laborer. These Vikings were something else! Anyway, after that neither Egil nor Skalla-Grim talked to each other for the remainder of the winter.

Years and years pass. The two brothers grew up. They were quite close even though quite different from each other. They fought many battles, always fighting together. During this time Egil met a girl and fell for her hard. However, he was too nervous to even talk to her. She and his brother ended up marrying each other instead. The boys ended up fighting in Scotland for the King of England. They were fighting well until the day the King decided to separate them. The brother was killed and Egil was beside himself with grief. He was also very angry with the king for separating him from his brother. He felt that if he had been there, he might have been able to save his brother. It took a good deal of silver from the king to patch things up with Egil.

Eventually Egil married his brother’s widow and they had children, two of which were boys. One son died of an illness. The other drown in the fjord when he was a teenager. Egil found Bodvar’s body washed up on shore and took it to the mound where his own father was interred. He opened it up and placed the body of his beloved son inside. Then he prepared himself to die. He no longer wanted to live.

Egil decided the best way to kill himself was by not eating. He daughter tried to talk him out of it but he was deeply depressed and obdurate. She tricked him into drinking water with milk in it. Since his fast had been broken with the milk, Egil decided to go on living. However, his daughter warned him that he needed to do something to get the grief out of his system. So Egil began writing. He ended up writing a beautiful poem titled “Ode to my Dead Sons.” Neil said it was a beautiful piece of work.

Egil lived to be in his 80s. As he aged, he became quite miserly. He wanted to save it all up and then take it to Thingvellir. He wanted to throw it out in front of all the people there and watch them fight over it. He never did. Instead, he took his chest of silver along with a couple of his slaves and rode off. He was never seen again.

There were cairns placed at the fjord where the nanny jumped into the water to try to save herself. There was a cairn where Egil killed the boy when he was seven. Another one was at the burial mound for Skalla-Grimm and Egil’s son Bodvar. This cairn had a bit more to it. One story tells of Skalla-Grimm fighting berserkers. He fought long and hard but his sword didn’t seem to do any damage to the berserker. However, the berserker managed to break Skalla’s shield. To protect himself, he grabbed a flat piece of rock and strapped it to the front of his body for protection. Now why the berserker gave him enough time to do all of this, I don’t know :-). In the end Skalla-Grimm managed to kill the berserker. In honor of this story, there is a stone shield on the cairn.

Cairn for Skalla-Grimm and his fight with the berserkers

Of course, there is more to Borgarnes than Skalla-Grimm and his family. We saw where Snow White lived. Yep, Snow White was Icelandic. Who knew! Actually, an illustrator in Winnipeg, Canada met a lovely young woman from Iceland. He got to know her and fell in love with her. He even asked her to marry him. It was not to be, however. She turned him down. Years later when he was working for a man named Disney, he had to create the likeness of a beautiful young woman. He used his sketches of the girl from Iceland that got away, to create Snow White. And now you know the rest of the story 🙂

After a fast driving tour around the town (we had time before our appointment with the veterinarian), we made our way to the local co-op for our discussion on blood mares.

I had never heard of the practice of blood mares until we signed up for this trip and I saw it in our itinerary. Gudrun didn’t mention it last time I was in Iceland. This is the practice of bleeding pregnant mares for a 56 day period in order to get the PGSM hormone. This hormone is used in industrial animal farming, particularly pigs. It synchronizes their cycles, pushes young female pigs into early maturity so they can begin having pigs sooner, allows workers to regulate when they will have their piglets, etc. It is also used with sheep and cows in cases of infertility. It isn’t used to abuse them like it is with pigs. Originally infertility doctors used this hormone for women with fertility problems back in the 1920s. However, it was problematic so they quickly gave up the practice.

In Iceland there are currently about 90 blood farms with 75-100 horses where they harvest the blood for this hormone. In theory it doesn’t sound too bad. The horses spend the bulk of the year roaming around free on large tracts of land. They are basically wild animals. And therein lies part of the problem. From Day 40 to Day 140 of their pregnancy, these mares are drained of 5 liters of blood every week. This is while they are pregnant and still nursing their previous foal. They are unuse to humans and during this period are repeatedly forced into a tiny box where they are immobililezed with metal poles and their head forced into an unnatural position so a veterinarian can jam a huge needle in to the vein in their neck. And these needles are reused all day long, getting duller and duller. This process goes on 56 times. It is calculated that last year the blood mares gave 170 tons of blood.

Since the horses are rarely around humans, this is highly traumatic for them. Their instinct is to fight or run away. They are beaten with boards and poles to get them into the blood collection boxes where they can be immobilized with the poles behind their legs and to the sides and front.

The foals are left with their mother until they are 18 months old, then most are sent to slaughter houses for meat. In Iceland that is no big deal because they have a culture of eating horse meat. It was one of the concessions they got when they became a Christian country. Personally, I can’t stand the thought of eating horse. I grew up with a Shetland pony who was a member of the family.

Few people in Iceland knew about the blood farms until 2019 when an animals rights group filmed a documentary blowing the lid off of the business. They filmed a follow-up in 2021. The video showed terrified horses being beaten and forced into the blood collecting boxes. Conditions were horrible. At that point there were 119 blood farms and over 5,000 blood mares. Now there are around 90 farms and 4,000+ mares so the documentary shut some of them down. I watched the video last night and had nightmares all night. It was awful.

The abuse of pigs is worse. They are kept in almost total darkness all day long. They are forced by use of this hormone to mature early and have more piglets than they have teats many of which die. They go from one pregnancy right into another with no break. They are basically used as incubators. I couldn’t eat any bacon this morning. Just looking at it made me feel ill.

Margaret was the veterinarian who talked to us this morning about the blood mares. She told us that the documentary was an eye-opener even for vets in Iceland. It was a dirty little secret that very few in the country knew anything about. All of the vets except a couple quit who were working for blood mare farms. Now the

farms have to bring in foreign vets and when anything goes wrong, they blame them. Convenient, huh.

You might wonder why they use mare blood. The simple answer is that the mare’s hormone has the best half life. It works the best and the longest of any other mammal. You might also wonder why big pharma can’t make a synthetic PGSM. They have. Germany has 36 synthetic forms of the hormone on the market yet they keep buying the PGSM from blood mares because it is cheaper and works better.

There is only one company in Iceland that takes the blood from mares and separates the hormone from it. It’s called Isteka. They turn the hormone into a powder form which makes distribution to animals much easier. Isteka not only makes the powdered PGSM, they are the single largest owner of horses in Iceland. They actually want to be in charge of the entire process. They are also the ones who run the required blood tests on the horses and certify that they are in good health. What is wrong with this picture?

The public in Iceland was appalled when the documentary and its sequel came out. Sixty percent of the public wanted the practice of bleeding the mares banned like it is in the rest of Europe. The EU is putting pressure on the Icelandic government to ban it or at least put better controls in place.

And supposedly there are strict controls. The mares must be between the ages of 4 and 24. Only vets can do the blood draw in the blood collection booths. Every second year bloodwork must be done on a sample of the horses to make sure the herd is healthy.

Despite this, the rules are being broken, especially when the business who is making money hand over fist is the one in charge of checking on the welfare of the horses. Even MAST which is the main veterinarian group in charge id ethics, etc. made excuses for the abuse of the horses filmed. The head lady said words to the effect that we all break the law when nobody is watching us. She made it sound like no big deal that they were beating these poor, terrified mares. I got so angry listening to her poor excuses.

In an other interview, one of the workers at an industrial pig farm said that they use the hormone so the workers have regular hours. With the hormone, you know when the pig will farrow. You can make sure it is during regular working hours. Therefore the company doesn’t have to pay overtime and the workers have weekends off.

Margaret said that her biggest problem with blood mares is that there is no moral reason for doing it. These poor mares are tortured strictly for money. The blood isn’t being used to save lives. It certainly doesn’t improve their life. Plus the guidelines for blood mare farms contradict the animal protection laws. The guidelines say they are experimental animals which is an out and out lie. They are not. As such, this should not be allowed to continue. There is no higher good.

In addition, by removing 5 liters of blood, 15-20% of the mare’s total blood is being taken out. And they are doing that once every week. According to recommendations, only 10-15% should be removed every four weeks. They are stressed, weak from lack of blood, and scared out of their minds. They go through this for two straight months for their entire life. When they are too old, they are sent to the slaughter house. Lovely thank you for their service.

So although for ten months of the year these mares roam free and lead good lives, for two months they suffer torture that they cannot understand. And they don’t forget.

Iceland is not the only country with blood mare farms. Uruguay and Argentina engage in this as well. And there are grievous abuses of the animals in those countries. Margaret believes that Russia and Mongolia also engage in this practice. They have large industrial farming and yet don’t purchase PGSM from anybody in Europe. She thinks they make their own.

The U.S. and Europe do not have clean hands in this matter either. They may denounce the practice, but they all purchase the powdered PGSM and use it in their industrial farming.

For anybody with a strong stomach and who are interested in seeing the documentary, here is the link. Just be warned that parts are difficult to watch. Like I said, it gave me nightmares.

We wrapped up our discussion of blood mares with Margaret and thanked her for her time, especially on a Sunday morning. She gave a very even-handed talk which I think we all appreciated. I don’t think I could have been so even-handed.

Our next stop was much more cheerful. We drove for over an hour until we reached a small village—Vegamöt. This was our lunch spot only it wasn’t an ordinary lunch stop. It was at family-run cafe and greenhouse. We met the husband outside. He showed us around the greenhouse and told us how they got started in this business.

The two had met and fallen in love. They decided that after they finished school they would move out of Reykjavik because it was getting too crowded for them. I believe it was his father who owned some property in a village near here and gave it to them to use. Originally they were growing and selling birch trees. They would work the nursery in the spring and summer on break from the university. In the fall they would go back to the city. They did this for several years until they finished school . At that point they moved to the village with their greenhouse and kept on with their birch trees.

Eventually another small town got geothermal heating. They moved to that village and restarted their greenhouse there to take advantage of the cheap source of heating.

Their birch tree business did really well until 2008 when Iceland had its financial crisis. Business declined. Buying trees was no longer a priority. Their sales dropped drastically. Something had to be done. So they switched gears and began growing lettuce for restaurants. People still had to eat, they figured. And that went really well until 2020 and COVID. Once again they had to make a shift in order to stay afloat. They began selling their lettuce through subscription in the city.

Then his wife decided that she wanted to start a small cafe right there in the house. She named it Icelandic for “Among good friends.” He has done most of the work on their house himself. He is quite talented. Both the cafe and the greenhouse are doing a pretty good business.

As we explored the greenhouse, he explained how they were using flowers as food. For example, you can eat begonia. We all got to try a sample. It was tasty. We also ate False Shamrock which had a nice flavor as well. We must have tried half a dozen different plants for their taste. Each was different and something I would have never thought to try. It was an interesting presentation.

We also learned that in their green house they use no pesticides, only fertilizer. They had a slug problem but learned to control them with sandy floors and black plastic. Strange but true. They use the geothermal water to heat the greenhouse, then it runs into the cafe. This particular water can not be drank. They have to get drinking water piped in from the mountains.

For lunch we had soup and salad. Everything was fresh from their greenhouse. I can’t say that I have ever had flowers in my salad or soup before. There was also home-made bread with cranberries along with fresh butter. The bread was sinfully good. I ate all of mine and slathered it with butter just to be truly decadent :-).

The salad had their fresh lettuce as well as tomatoes. It was decorated with blossoms. We all dug in. It was so tasty. The soup was her recipe. It was some type of vegetable soup. It was all puréed so you couldn’t see any individual veggies. It had a bit of a kick to it as well. And floating on the top were several beautiful flowers. What a lovely presentation and so tasty. We could have bought dessert but none of us did. After finishing off our soup and salad, several of us enjoyed a nice cuppa made with mint from their greenhouse. That was very good.

We told them “takkobless” and impressed them with our knowledge of Icelandic :-). Then we were rambling down the road once again. You really can’t dislike bus rides in Iceland. The countryside is just so absolutely and unbelievably gorgeous. Every second takes your breath away. And we still had perfect blue skies. Iceland really is a piece of heaven on earth, at least when the volcanoes aren’t erupting! Occasionally from a distance we caught a glimpse of Snæfellsjökull which is the glacier on top of the volcano. Amazingly you could actually see the glacier at the peak. I don’t believe we did last time. It was always shrouded in clouds. This trip I could see the glory of the volcano as well as the brilliantly white glacier crowing the basalt mountain. I tried getting a picture through the window but it didn’t work too well.

The colors here on the peninsula or “nes” aren’t as vivid as the colors along the southern coast of Iceland. That doesn’t make the views any less dramatic. On one side you had deep blue waters topped with turquoise skies. On the other side you had a sea of grasses mixed with cotton grass and yellow blossoms. In the distance reared up stark basalt mountains. Not much moss growing on these babies. They were all rock and sharp lines.

Amazing scenery on the way to Stykkisholmur

We had one more stop to make before making our way to the hotel in Stykkisholmur. Try saying that fast three times :-). This stop took us through a part of the Beserker Lava Field. Of course there is a story 🙂

Now as you probably know, beserkers are known to be fierce, possessed warriors who never give up. Well, a Viking chief named Viga-Styr hired two of them to help protect him and his. Basically they were hired killers but he had trouble keeping them busy. So they started hitting on his daughter. Well a chief can’t have a berserker for a son-in-law so he had to figure out a way to get rid of both men. He went to Snorri the chieftain and told him his dilemma. Snorri suggested having the two men build a road through the lava field. Surely that would be an impossible task to complete. So Styr promised the one that he could marry his daughter after building a road through a the lava field. Viga-Styr thought he was safe. He underestimated the will-power of the berserkers. They managed to build the road despite the hardships involved.

So now Styr was stuck. What should he do? He couldn’t let his daughter marry the one. He had to get rid of them. So he congratulated them on a job well done and told them as an additional reward, he had built them their own sauna. It was just big enough for the two of them and was out by the new road. When the two men went inside, Styr had the entrance blocked and stoked the fires until he had two par boiled vikings. To this day, that road is known as the Berserker’s Road which is Berserkjagata in Icelandic.

Neil took it a bit further and explained how it is theorized that berserkers went into their killing trance. One theory holds that one berserker would eat a special type of mushroom. It would make him horribly sick. He would pee and then his fellow berserkers would drink his pee. Then the others would go into their killing frenzy while the man who ate the mushrooms recuperated. Obviously the chemicals passed through his body and were “cleaned” by his systems. Then the other soldiers were able to fight but not get really sick.

And speaking of ingesting something disgusting, that was our next stop—the infamous hákarl of Iceland. Hákarl is fermented Greenland shark. This is one of the few places on earth where you can get it. This particular family has been producing it for the last 400 years which is truly amazing. The process of making the hákarl is very interesting.

The fermented shark is made from the Greenland shark which lives the longest of any vertebrate animal. They can live up to 400 years which is amazing. They also grow to be extremely large—around 23 ft. long. They live in deep water so we really don’t know a great deal about them. I believe in the winter they lived way down deep in the ocean. In the summer they are closer to the top in order to feed.

Originally this shark was hunted for its liver oil. That was in great demand in Europe for use in their street lights. It burned brightly and didn’t give off much soot. These days it isn’t actively hunted. However, cod fishermen catch them in their nets at times. They call Bjarnarhöfn and they buy the shark.

I don’t know who figured it out first but this shark meat should not be eaten in its raw state. It is filled with toxins much like antifreeze. Anybody who tried eating the meat got violently ill. Somebody somewhere got the idea of fermenting the shark. There is a three step process that turns the meat into something edible. In the old days they would bury the shark meat on a slope in a patch of gravel. They would leave it for a few months and then dig it up, if they could remember where they had left it. Then they hung it outside to finishing curing.

These days no gravel pit on a slope is required. They cut the meat into chunks with handles made with part of the skin. Then they put it in a box and leave it for six weeks. After that time period, it is taken outside to cure in the curing barn. It stays there for three to four months. In the drying process it loses 80-90% of its body weight. It’s shocking to find out that it is one of the healthiest food in Iceland.

The museum was located with a cafe and other buildings. The drying shed was out back. We walked inside and into the quirky museum. It was small but well done. They had entire boat in there! There were miscellaneous bits of fishing gear from all different times on the walls and tables. There were even stuffed sea birds, fish heads, and whale vertebrae.

A lovely young lady acted as our tour guide. She was very enthusiastic. She played a video for us that explained the fermenting and drying process to us. It was short and interesting. Then came the “fun” part. We got to sample the hákarl. I had had it before so I knew what was coming. I told Doug, “Chew fast and swallow faster!” The longer you chew your little cube of fermented shark, the more ammonia taste you would get from it.

They also gave us some brennivin which is a potato liquor. It’s potent. They don’t call it the Black Death for nothing. You dunk your chunk in the Black Death and then put it in your mouth and chew. When you are ready to swallow, you knock it back with the Black Death. If you didn’t drink alcohol, you could use a small piece of rye bread as a substitute or just eat the shark meat by itself.

Doug went first. He chewed it too long and got a strong taste of ammonia in his mouth. He had to have a second shot of brennivin to get rid of the taste. Being an old hand at this now, I chewed quickly and swallowed quicker with the alcohol. No ammonia for me. I even did a second piece so Doug could take a picture.

We were now official Icelanders. We can speak Icelandic and eat hákarl :-). I watched Jón eating the stuff like candy. He would get three or four pieces on a toothpick and then down them. Then he would go back for more. And no alcohol for him. He did just the shark. Obviously it is a taste he has acquired. People don’t eat this stuff all of the time. It’s usually eaten only on special occasions.

After we finished our tasting, we were free to roam around outside and see the drying shed. Last time it had been filled with chunks of drying shark meat. It was almost empty today. Maybe they haven’t gotten a shark to process in a while.

In the pasture next to the drying shed I spotted a few horses. I called them but they completely ignored me. Obviously my command of Icelandic isn’t as good as I thought. They were pretty babies though. I just can’t imagine eating them or draining a fifth of their blood out of them.

It was going on four so time to vamoose to the hotel in Stykkisholmur. We still had a thirty minute drive. Once in town I immediate recognized the church. I love this church. I think it is beautiful albeit a bit different. It was right next to the hotel so it makes a great landmark.

I recognized the hotel right away, too. I especially recognized the bathroom. Not my favorite one. Instead of a real shower stall, it has a plastic wall you swing out from the wall to make a barrier. There is nothing that keeps the entire floor from from getting wet. I believe this is what they call a “wet” bathroom. It’s all a part of the adventure 🙂

We made it to the bar just in time for Happy Hour. We both enjoyed a Boli while we sat and relaxed. Dinner was also at the hotel. We ate some of the best lamb I have ever had. It was so tasty and tender. These Icelanders really know how to cook lamb. Dessert was a type of caramel apple pie and it was great as well. We haven’t had a bad meal yet here in Iceland.

Tomorrow we drive clear around Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We have a couple of hikes tossed in there as well. It should be a good day filled with breathtaking scenery. Another perfect Icelandic day.

DAY 7: SELJALANDSFOSS & SKOGAFOSS WATERFALLS PLUS KOTLUJOKULL GLACIER : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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It’s always wonderful to start the day with a beautiful blue sky. It couldn’t have been more perfect. The forecast made it sound like the remainder of the day would be equally as fabulous. I crossed my fingers. Eight years ago when we were in the same location on our Iceland trip, everybody in the group got drench and whipped by the wind. Not the most pleasant of conditions. However, we were tough and didn’t let it stop us. I was hoping for a bit better today :-). Only time would tell. And the weather in Iceland is very mercurial.

We had a some driving to do before we made our first stop at Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. You know our trip leaders, they use every minute they can to educate us which is a good thing.

One of the topics we covered was parental leave after having a baby. Each parent gets six months of leave so together they will have a year. Wow. They also each get paid $30,000 while on leave. That is amazing. Then starting at 18 months to 2 years, the state subsidizes childcare paying around $200/month. The parents must figure out what to do in that gap year between the end of parental leave and the beginning of childcare.

Education starts at age 6. That is the beginning of elementary school. When a child is 16 they begin their senior secondary school. Árni called it gymnasium. It’s a modular system to allow the students to work as well as go to school. Of course when they work, it slows them down and it will take them more than three years to graduate. These days there is strong emphasis on vocational education. The country needs more plumbers, electricians, etc. Vocational Ed has been ignored in the past because it is the most expensive sector of education. Now the government is trying to encourage students to take the vocational track and to improve Vocational Education.

The university is free here although students do have to pay the registration fee each term. It is generally around $500. They can get student loans but the loans are tied to performance. Your grades drop, you lose your loan.

Healthcare is another topic always of interest to OAT travelers. It is free here. The state covers 85% of your cost and the remaining 15% comes from the person’s co-pay. However, after age 67 you are considered a pensioner and are exempt from co-pays. If you need to see a specialist, you have to get a referral from you GP. If you have a long-term illness, you have a limited amount you have to pay each month. Once you reach that limit, you don’t have to pay anything else for the rest of the month. Dental care is free until you are 18. They are trying to keep the elderly at home for as long as they can as that is much cheaper than putting them in institutions. The system will provide nursing care in the home. The big problem currently in healthcare is the lack of nurses. They need them desperately.

I was surprised to learn that the Norse religion is still quite vibrant here although the Lutheran church is the largest religion demographically. Catholics come next. Catholicism has grown because of the influx of Polish immigrants who are catholic.

When I talked about the two tectonic plates yesterday, I failed to mention that the meeting of these two plates cause seismic activity every second of every day. The plates are spreading apart at the rate of 2 cm a year.

Geothermal is very big here which isn’t surprising. A whopping 90% of the homes are heated with geothermal power. There are four geothermal plants on the Reykjavik peninsula alone. And because it is so crucial, the country is the leader in geothermal. They are teaching other countries around the globe who have geothermal potential. The Icelanders had to figure it out for themselves; however, they are happy to pass on their hard won knowledge to other countries such as Kenya.

The divorce rate in the country is around 40%. Of course, if you tack on the fact that most Icelanders don’t get married or wait a very long time to marry, that is an astonishing statistic. Most couples these days prefer to just live together. However, they do have a recognized status here. If they are together long enough, they are considered to be common-law spouses.

I know I mentioned before that Iceland’s schools use to be boarding schools. Originally in the rural areas, they would send one teacher from farm to farm to teach the children. That was difficult for both students and teachers. So they went to the boarding school system. Samuelsson designed some of these schools. We drove through the village of Fantana which had a school designed by Samuelsson and built in 1929. This days it’s not a school. However, there IS a boarding school in the small town. It is one of the few left in the country.

Salmon fishing is huge here. Many of the rich and famous come to Iceland specifically to fish for salmon or lax as they say here. Erick Clapton is one as well as David Beckham and King Charles.

As we drove along the southern coast, Mount Hekla came into view in the distance. It is the most active volcano in Iceland today. It has erupted five times in this last century and over twenty times since Iceland was settled. In 1104 the settlers were frightened by the loud eruption of Hekla. They were convinced that spirits of the dead lived there, that it was the gateway to hell. This eventual gave rise to the phrase “No way in heck….” It all comes from Mt. Hekla.

Although Hekla was due to erupted in 2010, it didn’t. Nearby at the Eyjafjallajokull Glacier ,that volcano erupted instead. But Hekla is responsible for the largest lava eruption in the history of Iceland. Hekla last erupted in 2000. Today there is very little around the volcano. Farmers had their sheep die and farms get buried under ash and lava. They didn’t want to go through that again.

The drive along the southern coast is one of my favorites. The scenery is just drop dead gorgeous. The moss covered mountains are just breath-taking. That moss took 30-40 years to grow. The stark contrast between the black lava of the mountains and the green of the moss just blows me away every time.

Scenery along the souther coast of Iceland

We also saw herds of Icelandic horses as we drove along. They are all out to pasture right now. You might say that it is their summer vacation. Soon they will be herding them up and bringing them in for Fall so they can then ride them up into the mountains to fetch the sheep who have been wandering free all summer long.

One curious sight we saw at one farm was tens of bras hanging on the fence! It definitely made the fence colorful. Nobody really knows why or who started this tradition. Neil did ask if anybody wanted to make a donation.

Our first stop this morning was a waterfall. By this point we had lost the sun. The skies were cloudy but it wasn’t raining. The wind gusted occasionally. The weather, however, could not take away from Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. It is unique in that you can actually walk behind it. It may not have been raining but the spray from the falls was getting us all wet as we stood in front of the 200 ft. falls. We all took turns posing in front of Seljalandsfoss and Neil took our photos. I noticed later that his finger was in every one of ours. :-). Bless his heart, he tried.

He warned us that the path behind the waterfall was very slippery. He suggest we not do it, but if we did, to be very careful. I didn’t remember it being bad. Both Mabel and I went back there. So of course we had a go at it. We weren’t the only ones from the group. Several were right behind us.

I had forgotten the rocky portion at the side. It was a little tricky but nothing too bad, just wet and slippery. The handrail on the stairs to get to the rocky section was worse. It was all wet and slimy. Yuck.

The view from the back of Seljalandsfoss was incredible. I was thankful there wasn’t a big crowd here. And thankful that behind the waterfall we were getting less wet than we had in front of it. We did get hit with a strong spray when we went out the other side of the cave behind the fall of water. You couldn’t avoid it. It was no big deal since we all had rain jackets on.

The back side of water at Seljalandsfoss

I liked Seljalandsfoss as it is a bit different. It falls over what use to be an old sea cliff. All of this area use to be under water at one time. The area around it was so lush and brilliantly green. I just never get tired of looking at the countryside here. It soothes my soul.

We had extra time after our jaunt into the mini cave behind the falls so we used the toilets. I got a cappuccino and then we explored the small gift shop. It was quite nice. I especially liked the dog whose name is Thunder. Well, that’s the English translation of it :-). She was nice and liked getting scratched. I didn’t mind obliging her.

Back on the bus we drove on, passing the second waterfall which we would visit on our way back to Selfoss. We had a different mission right now and that was to try to see more puffins. I was good with that.

The drive alone was enough to keep me happy. The scenery was just fabulous and I was happy to see that I recognized sections of it. It’s funny what you remember and what you don’t. I didn’t remember the gift shop at the waterfall but after checking my photos from 8 years ago, it was there. I did remember a particular mountain when we zipped by it. Why I remember mountains and not shops, I don’t know. I guess I’m just weird. Anyway, the drive kept me entertained as well as Neil’s discourse on puffins.

Most of what he told us, we already knew. Well, all but the two who weren’t on the pre-trip. I did get reminded that puffins eat almost exclusively sand eels which are a fish and not an eel.

One of the reasons that the puffin population is decreasing is the warming of the waters around their nesting grounds. I’ve mentioned that before. However, I thought the problem was strictly because the fish were moving into cooler waters. That is part of the problem but the other part is that the warmer waters are making the fish spawn earlier. Thus when the puffins need the baby sand eels to feed their pufflings, the eels have grown and are too large. They can choke the pufflings.

The other part of the problem is that the warm waters have also brought in a new fish that never use to be found here—the mackerel. What does the mackerel eat—sand eels. So now the puffins have competition for their only food source.

If that wasn’t enough, there is more trouble for those cute birds. People decided that rabbits made cute pets, at least for a while. Of course when they got tired of them, they set the rabbit free. Where do rabbits live? They live in burrows. Where do puffins have their nests? In burrows. The rabbits came in and started taking over the puffins’ burrows which was catastrophic for the birds. They are hardwired to nest in the same burrow. With a rabbit in it, that wasn’t possible. It doesn’t look good for my puffins.

At least they have banned puffin hunting in the Westman Islands. It’s still legal in the north. Neil said he once talked to a lady whose husband use to hunt puffins. She said there was one time he caught 1,000 puffins in a single day. Frankly, that just made me sick.

To see the puffins we had to go almost to the most southern tip of Iceland—Dyrhole Cliff. We had some walking to do to reach the puffin cliff but first we took in some of the view around us. In the distance to the left was a trio of amazing sea stacks that were featured in “Game of Thrones.” Off to the right you could see that the land curved around and the very tip ended with a sea arch and some more chunks of rock extending out from the point. That was the southern most point of Iceland. The wind was blowing a tad but not nearly as much as in 2008. It about blew us off the cliff that year. Plus is was raining as well. All of us in the group got drenched. Today was much nicer even if the sun was behind the clouds.

We admired the view and then made our way uphill to the puffin cliff. There was a solitary puffin on the grassy side of the cliff not five feet away from us. By the time I got close enough, I was able to snap one quick photo before it flew. That ended up being the only one we saw up close and personal. We did see dots off of black floating on the water. And tiny furiously flapping wings in the air. All were puffins but too far to get a good look at. Doug got up to the cliff side faster than I did so he got several close-up photos. I was just glad that the couple who didn’t go on the pre-trip got to see it. She was really wanting to see a puffin.

We watched the birds for quite a while. I think we were all enjoying the fresh air and beautiful scenery. Doug and I wandered around some of the paths. One led down to a sea arch. I got a nice shot through the arch with the sea stacks right above it.

All too soon it was time to head on to our next stop which was lunch at the Volcano Hotel. Volcano Hotel use to be a school. It has been converted into a 7 room hotel. It isn’t a fancy place but the views are fabulous and the food was great. We had delicious arctic char. We had eaten here the last time and had the Arctic char then as well. At that time Johann who did our super jeep tour in 2008 also owned the hotel. Since then he has sold the boutique hotel to two young men. The food is still great but I noticed that they didn’t serve the fabulous bread I pigged out on last time. My waistline is better off without it 🙂

From Volcano Hotel we drove to the village of Vik which is the southern most town in the country. Vik means bay so this town was on a bay. We stopped at a small indoor mall to rendezvous with Ingo who was our driver/guide for the super jeep excursion. After a quick stop at the toilet, we clambered onboard our huge-wheeled vehicle and took off in search of glaciers.

The particular glacier we visited was the Kotlujokull glacier which is an outlet glacier. To get to it, we had to go off-road on a vast expanse of black sand. It was an incredible sight with miles and miles of black sand and black mountains coated in green moss. The skies were even dark adding to the atmosphere.

Doug and I were in the very back so I couldn’t see out very well. However, what I could see was quite desolate. We made one quick photo stop posing next to the vehicle with the mountain in the background and black sand everywhere. It felt good to get out and stretch. My right knee was being a touch cranky. I needed to stretch it out. The cool air felt good against my cheeks. Flitting around us was a funky fly that looked much like a miniature dragon fly. Every few yards, a tiny clump of green disturbed the continuity of black sand. There was a minuscule amount of growth happening here.

Back in the vehicle we turned and headed inside the mountain area where the glacier was waiting for us. Now Kotlujokull doesn’t look like you would imagine. It is all shades of black and white. It was the dirtiest glacier you would ever hope to see, literally covered with pumice. Some humps of black I thought were piles of pumice were actually ice coated in volcanic grit. This was quite different from our glacier experience in Glacier Bay.

We had to park our behemoth vehicle and hike to the glacier itself. We passed one hill that was the filming site for the series “Witcher.” Of course “Star Wars: Rogue One” was being filmed around the glacier the last time I was here.

This time we didn’t have to wade through or jump over tiny streams of glacier water. Somebody has built bridges over the largest of them. It was an easy hike and we made it to the face of the glacier in fifteen minutes. Up close it still didn’t look like a glacier to me. There was none of that deep, dark blue that distinguished the really old ice. It just looked dirty.

Despite that it was still impressive standing right next to 600 year old ice. I could see water running off of it in micro waterfalls in several places. This glacier has been receding at a horrid rate. There was a large gap between the glacier and a hill that ten years ago use to be filled with glacier.

The glacier use to fill in the gap between the mountain and where the glacier is today.

While we were checking the glacier out, Ingo took his ice pick and chopped off a couple of ice chunks for us to examine. Once the grit was washed off the ice itself was pristine. He then chopped a chunk into teeny pieces, placing one in each of the shot glasses he just happened to have in the container he had carried in. For those of us willing to drink alcohol, we tried Katla vodka with glacier ice. Others had orange juice or a mixture of both. The vodka was very smooth.

I have to say that my visit this time had much better weather. It wasn’t sunny but it wasn’t raining and blowing like last time either. It was chilly but pleasant. It was nice to be able to enjoy our time at the glacier. It is definitely a unique experience being surrounded by all of that ice although we weren’t actually on the glacier itself, just standing next to the snout of it.

The clock was ticking so we had to bid Kotlujokull a fond farewell. We made the hike back to our monster vehicle and made tracks. We took a different way back to the road so we saw some different terrain which was nice. At the asphalt road we had to stop for several minutes while Ingo reinflated the tires. He deflated them to get better traction while we were off road.

In no time we were back in Vik at the tiny mall. We made another potty stop which I was very grateful for! We had a few minutes so we browsed the Icewear store. I had bought a pair of socks there last time. Unfortunately when I put them on the first time, they were way too tight. Oh, well….Today we didn’t buy anything.

Back on the bus we backtracked the route we had taken earlier. This time we stopped at Skogafoss which was our last waterfall for the day. The weather was not optimal for visiting a waterfall, however. It was overcast and misting. The sun was MIA. Last time we had rainbows. No chance of that this time. We admired the front of the falls and then Doug and I headed up the stairs at the side that would take us to the top of the falls. Neil had suggested that nobody do that as we didn’t have a good deal of time. He said it would take 30 minutes to make it up to the top. We only had 40 minutes before we had to be on the bus. Doug is never one to back away from a challenge.

It was a tough hike up all of the stairs but I did it with a few stops along the way. Doug got a head start so he was WAY ahead of me. As I trudged up the multitude of stairs, I couldn’t help but drink in the bewitching countryside spread out before me. You couldn’t see the falls but I didn’t care. I was entranced by the waterfalls’ surroundings. At the top of the falls, you could just see where it went over and down. The view of the countryside was worth the breath-stealing climb.

Coming down was nerve wracking for me. Half of the way down there was no railing on my side. I don’t like going down anyway so this was hard. Add to that the fact that the stairs jiggled a bit when people passed you and kids rushing up didn’t care if they knocked into you. I was SO happy to get back down in piece! Even better we made it back to the bus with five minutes to spare 🙂

Neil let us chill out on the way back. It had been a very long day. As soon as we arrive back at the hotel we tossed our stuff in the room and headed over to Krisp for dinner. It was a small restaurant that our fellow travelers had enjoyed last night. It was right across the street. We couldn’t get a table so we ate at the bar which was fine. We both got the Krisp Burger and it was very tasty. The “fries” were small potatoes split in half and fried. Very good!

Tomorrow is a travel day. We leave southern Iceland and head northward to Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We’ll have mind-blowing scenery along the way. We also have a controversial topic discussion tomorrow morning. It’s about the blood mare farming here. I watched the documentary Neil sent us about it tonight in preparation. It makes me literally ill. But more on that tomorrow. I’ll wait and see what the veterinarian says.

DAY 6: WOOL STUDIO & GOLDEN TRIANGLE: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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Have I said how much I love Iceland? I really can’t say it too much. This place just rings my bell even on cloudy windy days like this morning. It felt like a fabulous day because I was in Iceland!

After fighting the crowds down at breakfast (there were so many tour groups staying here. No wonder we stayed in another town last time), we hopped on our nicely large bus and hit the road—the Golden Circle road, that is. Yep, today we were going to be like every other tourist in Iceland and visit the three major sites. Hopefully today will be our last brush with large crowds.

Before doing that though, we made a special stop which OAT is always so good about doing. This morning’s special learning experience was at a wool studio. You could hear the men in our group mentally groaning when they found out. I’m not big into that type of thing either but I had confidence that it would be interesting. I was correct.

The studio belongs to Guðrún Bjarnadóttir. She is a university professor who has turned her hobby into her life’s work. She dyes wool yarn but does so the ancient way. While in graduate school she decided to write her masters thesis on dyeing wool the way her ancestors had. What started out as a school requirement soon turned into a much loved hobby. She got her degree and began teaching all the while still finding old dyeing recipes and trying them. She began selling her yarn a little at a time. Then more and more people started coming to buy. Eventually her hobby took over her life. She moved down to Selfoss which was closer to Route 1 (Ring Road), found an old building and renovated it. It now serves as both her home and her studio. She holds knitting events there, teaches people the dyeing process, and sells items she has created. I don’t know where she finds the time to do it all.

Guðrún Bjarnadóttir explaining the old way of dyeing wool

First she explained that she uses the old traditions but with modern technology. Instead of using a fire, she had electricity and better dye pots. She also uses ammonia instead of cow urine. Thank you!

As Guðrún explains it, the dyeing process is about chemistry. You take something acidic and alter it with something alkaline. Some times it is a quick process but mostly it is time consuming. As in the old days of the Vikings, she uses plants and even insects to achieve the colors she wants. Even the color of wool makes a difference. And different plants produce dyes that last longer or fade quickly. Since Iceland only has 500 different types of plants, people here have always had to import from Europe. For a while Icelandic people only wore black because they couldn’t get to Norway to trade for the plants to make colors. Famine and small pox had ravaged the population. It was a dark period of time for Iceland that lasted up until the 18th century. Finally things improved and color came back into their lives.

Colors were classified in ancient times. Only the Pope could wear purple as it took forever to make. It required mixing crushed snails with urine. Yuck! Blue was saved for kings and royalty. The indigo used came from India. The browns and beiges were used by the poor.

I was amazed to learn that anything green you use as a dye actually makes a yellow color. You have to change it to green by using something else such as indigo. The color of wool can change the color as well. So there are many variables that must be taken into account when dyeing yarn. As Guðrún said, you never know exactly what you are going to get and that’s the fun part of it.

She found one recipe for red dye that she tried as an experiment. It called for Icelandic moss and 40 gallons of cow urine. How do you go about gathering that much cow urine! It was a challenge. Fortunately at that time she lived next to the agricultural department of the university and they had cows. Unfortunately they were free range cows and ran away from her any time she raised her bucket near their rear ends. Stymied, she put an add in the paper for cow urine. Children on farms came to her rescue. On the farms the cows were still tied to the barn. The children knew just what to do to make them pee on command as they would make all of the cows pee before milking them. So Guðrún struck a deal with the youngsters. They would provide her with urine and she would pay them what people pay for a gallon of milk. The kids worked in teams of two. One would tickle the cow in the proper spot while the other held the bucket. In no time she had her urine.

Ultimately the recipe was not a keeper. She had to change the urine every few days and constantly stir it around. You can imagine the stink. In the end the red color was not good. It was ugly, faded quickly, and stank. I can’t imagine why😜. As a side note she told us that back in the day people probably didn’t notice the smell. They lived with their animals, rarely washed and even used cow urine as hair conditioner. It supposedly made your hair soft and super shiny. None of us volunteered to give it a whirl.

We did find out that while Icelandic moss makes a bad red dye, it is actually a useful plant. Although it is called “moss,” it is actually a lichen. People use to eat it as it was full of carbs and had antibacterial properties. It was also good for the respiratory system.

Lupine is her go to source of green to make yellow dye. Since it is invasive, nobody cares how much of it she gathers. She can use it to dye gray yarn and get green. She also collects yellow onion skins (the grocery collects them for her as well) to make an orange color. It dyes immediately when the ammonia is added. It’s like magic. Rhubarb is another common plant she uses. Everybody grows rhubarb so it is easy to obtain. Neighbors leave the roots and leaves for her.

There are some colors she has to import to get. For example, she has to import indigo to get blue. What she thought was coming from Germany is actually coming from Iran. Pink is another one she has to garner from outside of Iceland. To get pink you have to use an insect that lives on the prickly pear. The female only gives yarn the pink color. What I want to know is, who the heck thinks up these things to try!

All in all, I enjoyed her mini lesson very much. She showed us the items in the multitude of dye pots she had going. In the center of the studio she had a knitting area. There were a couple of OAT scarfs in progress. Any OAT person could come in and work on them. When they are finished, she will raffle them off.

The woman is smart. She also had kits. You could buy a mitten kit, scarf kit, etc. The kit came with the yarn and instructions. You supply the knitting needles and the talent to knit. She even had a puzzle made for those who enjoy putting puzzles together. That’s where Doug spent his time. I think he should have bought one but he refused. It was only 1,000 pieces. He prefers 2,000 or more pieces. The picture was row after row of different color yarns. I did make a purchase. Since our daughter Sam loves to crochet, I’ve been trying to buy her yarn from the countries we visit. This was the perfect opportunity. I found some I think she’ll like. And this will be special because it is hand dyed the old-fashion way. Perfect.

We enjoyed our time with Guðrún but I was ready to go visit my favorite waterfall of all time. I’ve seen all of the big three—Niagara, Victoria, and Iguassu. They are impressive but I love Gullfoss. Something about it just appeals to me. It’s not as large or as powerful as the other three but to me it is the most beautiful.

Gullfoss is also called the “Golden Falls.” Why? Well, once upon a time there was a mean, old man who had a farm out in the area. He had a big chest of gold but didn’t want to share it with anybody. He didn’t even want his children to have it. To keep it from them, he came up with a plan. He hauled it to a nearby waterfall and threw it in, thus filling the water with the shiny gold. When the sun is shining you see the gold he threw in the fall. Most likely it is because when the light is just right, something in the rock sparkles.

Now Iceland almost lost this national treasure. At the turn of the century, it happened to be on the land of a farmer. At this point in time a British developer named Howell wanted to harness the power of the falls for hydro-electricity so he offered to buy the land from its owner Tómas Tómasson. Tómas refused to sell. However, despite his daughter Sigríður begging him not to, he leased the land to Howell. Because of a loophole in the lease, Howell was free to build the plant. Sigríður fought the developers for years. She walked all of the way to Reykjavik (over 60 km) to talk to a lawyer. He told her there was nothing she could do. But that didn’t stop her. She kept fighting. One version of the story is she told Howell that if he tried to build the hydro plant, she would throw herself into the falls. However, because Howell failed to pay the lease on time, the lease was null and void. The falls were saved and Sigríður didn’t have to take that dive. The falls now belong to the country and everybody can enjoy them. And Sigríður is known as Iceland’s first environmentalist.

In the Gullfoss Falls the water of the White River comes boiling out at three different levels. And it’s shape is unique. It doesn’t fall off the side of a cliff. It is almost triangular. Impossible to describe. You just have to see it.

The wind was blowing like crazy when we got out of the bus. I was glad I had put my fleece jacket on beneath my rain jacket. You had to really fight the wind at times. First Doug and I enjoyed the view from the top. You got to see the entire falls and see just how incredible it is. Then we made our way down to the falls themselves. Here the wind whipped the spray into our face. I tried to be careful with my camcorder and keep it dry. We made it all of the way to the rocky top of the falls. Mabel and I tried last time but didn’t quite get to the tip top. We just didn’t have the time. Doug and I made it. From this vantage point you could feel the power of the top portion of the falls. The sound was deafening. I loved it.

Slowly we made our way back uphill. I was hard pressed to keep my eyes on where I was walking. I wanted to drink in every second of the falls. Most likely I will never see it again. I feel so fortunate to have seen it twice. I still love it and consider it the most beautiful waterfall in the world.

We made a quick pit stop at the toilet and then hopped on the bus. When I went to put my camcorder away, I noticed it was recording. I figured I had accidentally hit the record button so I went to delete the errant clip. You can imagine how ticked off I was when I discovered that of all the video I took of Gullfoss, only one clip was good. All of the other clips were of feet and walkway. Obviously when I thought I had pressed the button to record, I hadn’t pressed it hard enough so when I pressed again to stop recording I was actually starting the recording. Oy vey! It’s not the first time I’ve done that. I consoled myself with the knowledge I do have video from last time. I also got some good pictures as well as video on my phone when the spray got too strong to use my camcorder. It was still frustrating. And I kicked myself mentally as we headed to the second stop on the Golden Circle—the home of Geysir the first geyser and the one which gave its name to all others.

While we drove Neil pointed out Langjokull (Long) Glacier off in the distance from Gullfoss. It’s an outlet glacier and the second largest glacier in Iceland. It was way in the distance and hard to distinguish from the sky and clouds.

He also talked about the interior of the island. It is uninhabited space. Back in the Viking days they stayed out of the interior because they believed it was filled with ghosts and outlaws. People who broke the law were often sentenced to live in the interior. It was banishment and usually meant death. If you had to live in the interior, your only hope for survival was to find a location with hot water. It would keep you warm. Food was problematic. There were no deer, rabbits, or anything wildlife source of protein except birds. The odds were you wouldn’t survive.

Driving we spotted tiny cabins dotting the countryside. Neil explained that owning a summer house has become a status symbol. Most of them are located here along the Golden Circle, probably because the weather is better here than up north. They were tiny places kind of like our fishing and hunting camps. There was a slew of them.

We also noticed ditches running through many of the open fields. These ditches were dug years ago to try to dry out the land. Iceland is a very wet country. As an incentive to get the farmers to do this, the government gave the them money. There are 35,000 km of ditches throughout the country. Since then science has shown that the ditches are the largest source of CO2 in the country. Now the government is paying the farmers to fill the ditches in. You just have to shake your head.

It wasn’t too long before we pulled into the car park for Geysir. Actually Geysir itself has gone dormant. It rarely goes off any more. I’m thinking it’s been a very long time because you can walk right up to it . The park people must be confident that it won’t got off.

Neil shared some interesting background information about this hot spot. In 1772 Sir Banks did the first research here. He wanted to research elsewhere but was turned down. He ended up here. Sir Bunsen who created the Bunsen burner got a stipend to come here and study geysers. He was the first person to lower an instrument into Geysir. From his studies we learned that the higher the pressure the higher the boiling point.

It was right at noon when we arrived so we went straight to lunch which was on our own. The Visitor Center had a few places where you could grab a bite. Doug and I went to the salad, soup, and sandwich area planning on getting a salad. The salad was disappointing. You got lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, and broken tostado chips. We ended up not getting salad. Doug got ready made fish & chips while I got a burger. It wasn’t great but it was fast. We didn’t have a great deal of time.

We sat with another couple and chatted with them. I deserted them when I finished eating. I wanted to see if they had the coffee mug I had spotted at the VC at Gullfoss. It had been perfect but I had no time to buy it. I was banking on it being here as well. Fortunately it was but I really had to hunt. It’s the perfect size and has puffins :-). It took me a while to pay. The line wasn’t that long but just when it was my turn, the cashier left so I had to move to another line. I did get it paid for and they even wrapped it in bubble wrap. I wasn’t even late meeting up with the rest of the group.

Then we were on the move to see geysers. To be honest, once you’ve seen Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, nothing else matches up. That one is the mac daddy of geysers. However, historically Geysir is special. They do have one that still goes off. It is the one people come to see nowadays.

The premier geyser is called Strokkur. That translates to “the churn” in Icelandic. It is their version of Old Faithful except this one blows its top much more often. I’m talking within seven or so minutes. We saw it go off as we were walking into the geyser area. Of course there was a crowd waiting around the roped off area. Everybody had their cameras and phones at the ready. This is when I wished I had brought my monopod. My camcorder gets heavy.

We waited for several minutes and then Strokkur gave two small burps. Doug looked at me and said, “Is that it?” It was anticlimactic. We waited longer and just when my attention was flagging, it went off. I’m not sure I caught much on my camcorder. I know I got it last time so it isn’t crucial. I did want to get good footage though.

We left Stokkur and slowly made our way to Geysir. Even dormant it was impressive. The mouth lay in a pristine clear pool. You could see crystal formations rimming the exitway for the steam. That was nifty. I was astonished at how close up you could get.

We took our time and ambled back to Strokkur, determined to give it one more try. This time we got further back. We were too close the first time. We had barely gotten into position when it went. Doug got a good picture. I think I got much better video. I’ll know when I get home and see it on the computer. I didn’t even bother trying to get a picture.

Mission accomplished, it was time to start heading back to the bus. I did stop and snap a quick video of Little Geysir. I’m not sure how often it goes off, if ever. Last time I had seen something about some colorful areas. We didn’t have time to see them then. This time I didn’t see anything about that. Maybe the bacteria that makes the colors died. Who knows.

We had one last location to make on our Golden Circle tour. And really, it is the most historically important. When I think about its history, I get chills. But first a little background information would be helpful.

Iceland, of course, was originally settled by Vikings. The earliest settlers had come from different countries so they agreed they needed a common code of law to keep the peace. They all agreed that Iceland would not have a king or be a kingdom but would be rather more like a commonwealth. All of the local “things” or councils would meet once a year. This meeting was called the Althing. They would pass laws, discuss what was going on, and pass judgements. In 930 they discovered Thingvellir. It had water and was centrally located amongst the villages. It became the chosen spot for this six-week meeting.

The active legislative council was called the Logretta which was made up of three chiefs from each district bringing it to a total of 39 members. The “Law-Speaker” was elected from this council and served for a term of three years. He was the only public official to get paid for doing this. He had to know the law by heart and recite it out loud. He also had to lead the proceedings of the council meetings.

Anybody attending the Althing could listen in at council meetings; however, they couldn’t vote on decisions. They could argue for one side or the other at the Law Rock. At this meeting land was traded, marriages arranged, business agreements entered into. It was here that a nation was born with its own unique culture and customs.

Things went swimmingly until 1273 when Iceland fell under the rule of Norway and had to adopt the “ironside” codex. The Althing still met for the next 500 years but it’s influence began to falter. The last official meeting took place in 1798 after which the group was formally disbanded. It was re-established in 1848 and moved to Reykjavik in 1874.

In 1930 the government realized that it was the 1000 anniversary of the Althing at Thingvellir. They knew they need to mark this momentous occasion some how. Teddy Roosevelt actually gave them the idea of what to do. He had come over to hunt and fish and had talked about conserving nature by creating national parks. The government decided that that was what they should do. In 1930 Thingvellir was declared Iceland’s first national park.

This site has been the place Icelanders have come to for truly momentous occasions. In the year 1000 this is where Law-Speaker Thorgeir Thorkelsson spent one day and one night laying beneath skins in a temporary hut deciding whether the country would stay pagan or adopt Christianity. The next day he rose before the people gathered at Thingvellir. He asked if they would abide by his decision. They agreed. Then he announced that they would become a Christian country. Not one drop of blood was shed. Amazing.

Of course he managed to get three concessions before making this change. The first concession was that the people would still be allowed to eat horse meat. I believe one of the popes had made that illegal. The second concession was that the people could still practice their pagan religion but only in private in the confines of their home. The third concession stated that a mother was allowed to expose a baby to the elements.

June 17, 1944 saw 30,000 people in Thingvellir as the country finally declared its independence from Denmark. It was made an UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.

It well deserves this status and not only for its historical aspect. Geologically it is important as well. This is where you can see the two tectonic plates Iceland rests on waging their battle. There is the North American Plate and the Euro-Asian plate. They have pulled apart and the area between them is a third sub-plate called the Shire.

Thingvellir is stunning. You enter this hallowed ground through a crack in the earth that has on occasion crumbled in on itself from the tectonic activity. We saw pictures of how the walkway had collapse several years ago. I could just envision the Vikings of old solemnly marching through this very fissure. I got chills as I walked in their footsteps.

Black walls of rock gradually widen onto the Law Rock which looks out onto the plains. The plains area now is dotted with streams and holes of water. In the distance you can see the church and a five-gabled farm house that is the prime minister’s summer residence. The church was built in 1859. It was built on the site of the original church that was constructed when Thorkelsson made the decision for Iceland to become a Christian nation.

It was breathtaking to look across the valley at the church across the field of green grass, criss-crossed by streams. An island in the middle is connected to land by two bridges. This is where duels were held. Turning around and you saw this massive black basalt wall. It was the face of the North American plate and was the backdrop for the Law Rock. I was awed. A more current but fun connection is that Thingvellir was one of the sites used in filming “Game of Thrones.” Several locations in Iceland appeared in the show.

Law Rock with the North American Plate wall

After listening to Neil’s explanation about Law Rock, we walked by the Drowning Pool where Iceland use to have executions. They would drown “loose women,” behead murderers, burn sorcerers. Only one woman was executed for being a witch but. 30+ men were burned for being sorcerers.

Women were executed for three reasons: adultery, exposing a child to the elements, and incest. To execute a woman, they put her in a bag with rocks. Then she had to stand on the edge of the pool for hours being humiliated. Finally the executioner would use a pole and push her into the pool where she would drowned. There were several cases where women were framed and then judged guilty. One family after all of these years is still fighting to clear their relative’s name.

The Drowning Pool wrapped up our visit. Jón met us with the bus so we didn’t have to walk back through the crack. The tectonic activity here really is fascinating to see. There were all kinds of cracks and fissures. In fact you can dive or snorkel in Thingvellir Lake and actually swim between the two plates. Wow!

We had an hour drive back to Selfoss so we spent some of the time discussing the concession about exposing a baby to the elements. That was a hot topic. For us it seemed unconscionable. However, back then it was a form of population control. Maybe the family couldn’t feed the baby. Maybe it was handicapped in some way. In the Viking times only the strong survived. The only protection you had was yourself and your family. So while it seems like murder to us, back then they were playing with a different deck of cards. Neil also made the point that the woman could not leave the child outside if she had already breast fed it or given it a name. There were also specific location where she was suppose to leave the baby. That way somebody else could come and claim it. It was a different time with different morals.

Neil capped off our day with a saga. This was part of the Saga of Njáll. It is the most popular saga. This particular story is about Njáll’s best friend who is the handsome hero—Gunnar Hámundarson. Gunnar was a mighty warrior while Njáll was a lawyer and a seer.

This story takes place after Gunnar has spent a year sowing his wild oats. He returns back to his town and is ready to find a wife and settle down. He attended the Althing on the hunt as this is where most wives were found. It is here that Gunnar sees Hallgerðr langbrók and falls in lust with her. She was older at 30 but beautiful. Her hair was so long she could cover her entire body with it. Hallgerðr was a rule breaker though. As a widow she was suppose to have her hair bound up. She prefer to let it hang free. She also had a bit of a reputation. Gunnar didn’t care.

Gunnar went to his best friend Njáll and asked if he should marry her. Njáll was aghast and vehemently replied “No!” Gunnar, however, wouldn’t listen. He married her anyway and took her to his farm. Maybe he should have listened to his friend. Hallgerðr was not the best wife. Her house keeping skills were nonexistent. She didn’t like any type of domestic chore. The summer days wore into winter and Hallgerðr notice in the pantry that they were beginning to run out of food. She had mismanaged it and if something wasn’t done, they would starve. However, Hallgerðr didn’t want to admit to Gunnar that she had messed up. Instead, she took an Irish slave aside and asked him to go to the neighbor’s house, break in, and steal some of their food.

The slave refused her. In Viking times stealing was the lowest of the low. The slave had his honor to think of. Hallgerðr didn’t let that stop her though. She threatened to kill him if he didn’t do her bidding. Although he didn’t want to, the slave had no recourse.

He went to the neighbor’s house and stole their food. For good measure he set the house on fire. Unfortunately his knife fell out of his belt while he was doing this. It was a special knife with a fancy handle. Everybody knew his knife. So when the knife was discovered in the ashes, the neighbor knew who had done the dead.

Gunnar was incensed that Hallgerðr had done this. He slapped her across the face. She stood there, stoic, staring at him. Then in a measured voice, told him, “I will remember what you did. I will pay you back.”

Time passed and Gunnar goes and visits his friend Njáll. He know that Njáll can see the future so he asks Njáll to look into the future and tell him if he sees his death. Njáll could. However, he could also see how Gunnar could avoid this death. He must not kill two members of the same family. Sounds easy enough.

Unfortunately for Gunnar, his enemies find out and they set him up. Our hapless hero who is more brawn than brains ends up having to kill two members of the same family. His fate is now determined. Gunnar and his brother who was also involved in the killings are judged and sentenced to leave Iceland for three years. As they are riding to their ship, Gunnar’s horse shies and Gunnar is thrown off. Because of his athletic prowess, he lands on his feet facing his farm. As his eyes linger on it, he realizes that he cannot leave it. Knowing that he will be an outlaw and his enemies are free to kill him, Gunnar tells his brother he isn’t leaving and rides for home. His brother does board the ship and leaves Iceland.

Meanwhile back on the farm, Gunnar’s enemies have converged on the farm and are attacking, He has flaunted the judgement of the Althing. They cannot let him get away with it without looking bad themselves. So they are out for blood. Gunnar, his mother, and Hallgerðr are the only ones in the house. Gunnar, being the fabulous warrior that he is, picks off his enemies with his long bow. Then disaster strikes! The string on the bow breaks! Gunnar beseeches Hallgerðr to give him some of her long hair in order to restring his bow. She merely looks at him and says “You remember that slap. This is my revenge. No.” Never tick off a woman! Ultimately our hero is killed. And thus ends the story of Gunnar and Hallgerðr. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow what happened to her and Njáll.

The end of the story brought us back to Selfoss. The traffic to cross the bridge was atrocious but Jón got us to the hotel quickly. He’s a pro :-). Back i the room we decided that we would have an early dinner at the Food Court. We went early in order to beat the festival crowd.

It wasn’t crowded at all when we first went in but by the time we left, it had filled up. We decided to try Samuelsson’s Bistro and Bar. I bet it was named for the architect. Since we had an unhealthy lunch, we went for salad for dinner. It was called chicken salad but it was different. It wasn’t bad but I can’t say I would ever order it again. I am not a fan of pickles in my salad. There was pickled red onion as well. At least it was healthy. Of course the beer we drank with it wasn’t :-). It was Seagull which is an Icelandic beer I had not heard of. It was a lager and was pretty tasty.

After we ate we wandered to the ice cream shop right next to the food court and gave their chocolate ice cream a try. We each got one scoop so we weren’t too bad. The ice cream was okay. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had. Tomorrow we’ll have to try the ice cream place on the end of the hotel building. I had marked that one on my map because I read it was really good. We’ll find out tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow, we will see more waterfalls along with a glacier and maybe some puffins. The weather is suppose to be good again tomorrow but it’s Iceland so you never know.

DAY 5: TRAVELING BACK TO SELFOSS: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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I thought today would be a great day to get caught up on the miscellaneous Westman Islands information I have been gathering. It was just a travel day so how much information could I gleam? Apparently a good deal! Traveling back to Selfoss itself was no real mine of information although Árni did share tidbits along the way. It was meeting our new TL Neil where the flood of information began. And boy, it WAS a flood but all very interesting. But before I get into all of that, I’ll try to get caught up 🙂

We actually had an early departure time this morning which was surprising as we didn’t have a plan for the rest of the day for anything other than an orientation walk and briefing by Neil. But by 9 AM we were on our way to the ferry. Normally we would walk onto the ferry but since we’ve been on the island, a lorry had crashed into the ferry version of the jetway and had totally destroyed it. People were having to walk onto the ferry via the vehicle parking area. Alfred was our driver this morning and he wrangled it that he would drive us in. Of course then we had to get out and go upstairs to the seating area.

Getting on the ferry and the actual trip went like clockwork. There was a bit more motion today because it was windy. Gone was our beautiful weather of the last few days. It was overcast, cold, and windy. That was okay. Now I felt like I was in Iceland :-). We sat at a table and chatted with our fellow travelers. Before I knew it, we were fixing to dock and it was time to head down to the bus.

The bus ride to Selfoss was around an hour. I was glad it wasn’t longer. I volunteered to sit in the seat with the wheel well. Doug had sat there on the way to the ferry. I figured it would be easier for me on the longer ride than him. By the end I wasn’t so sure. My knees were starting to talk to me. It’s a good thing the trip was only an hour.

Here are the bits and bobs of information I’ve been gathering:

In recent years the volcanic action has increased. Scientist theorizes that this could be caused by the receding of the glaciers. The pressure from the glaciers has basically kept a lid on the volcanoes. With that “lid” lightening, volcanic activity is increasing. The country is 11% glacier but that amount is decreasing. If the glaciers disappear altogether, it will be catastrophic for Iceland. No longer will the country have the glacial rivers that produce hydroelectricity for the country. And 70% of their energy is from hydroelectric. Only 30% is from geothermal power.

Geothermal heating didn’t actually start in Iceland until the 1930s. The schools were the pioneers and led the way. At that time, they were boarding schools so they needed warm buildings for the students to live in.

Here is an interesting factoid, people in Iceland can now use umbrellas. Why? The wind has decreased. Before the wind was so strong that an umbrella was virtually useless. Wind speeds have lessened so the umbrellas have come out.

Iceland is an associate member of the EU. They have all of the rights as full members; however, they cannot vote in EU matters.

I was surprised to learn that 20% of the population these days is immigrants. Many come here to work. Hotels and restaurants are almost 100% manned by immigrants. The two girls cleaning rooms in our hotel in Selfoss were not Icelanders. One was from Italy and the other from Ukraine.

Another interesting fact is that music in Iceland is very much influences by secular Jewish music. Many Jews came here to escape the Nazis. They would play their music and the Icelanders liked it so much they adopted it.

As practical as Icelanders are, I was shocked to learn that they are actually quite superstitious. Árni admitted that he has to sleep with a light on and he won’t go into a cemetery after dark.

Unlike Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, Iceland does not have a problem with brain drain. For specializing, students have to go out of the country. However, most return to the island after they complete their studies. They know they can find work for good pay in their field. And they have their family here. They are very close-knit.

Children are required to attend school. From the age of 16 to 19 they attend gymnasium which is basically their version of high school. After gymnasium, they attend university.

Wind is such a dominant force here that there are 120 words for it in Icelandic.

Another fact, there are no wild horses in Iceland. They are all tame and owned by somebody. And nobody knows exactly how many horses there are in the country. The farmers are a cagey lot and aren’t telling.

In fact, there aren’t many wild animals on the island at all. They have the arctic fox and mice which are indigenous. Up in the north they have brought in reindeer and have a couple of herds roaming the land there. They were brought in for hunting.

A definite advantage to living in Iceland is the lack of mosquitos. They aren’t sure exactly why they don’t have them when neighboring Greenland does, but they are happy they don’t.

Once every ten years or so a polar bear will show up on the west coast of Iceland. They come from Greenland. Somehow they get stuck on a bergy bit that washes up here. When they get close, they can swim to land. They are hungry and angry and dangerous. Ten years ago one showed up and the farmers gathered up their weapons and hunted it down before it could destroy their sheep and horses. Proud of themselves, they posted pictures of the dead polar bear on FaceBook. A whirlwind of international criticism ensued. A few weeks later a female polar bear showed up. Now they were in a quandary. What should they do? If they killed it, they would come in for more international criticism. If they didn’t kill it, it would kill animals and possibly people. Greenland didn’t want it back. Zoos wouldn’t take it. They were stuck. I believe they ended up letting some German tourists shoot it. They decided after that, they would kill the next bear that floated in and never tell a soul.

Back in the 9th century when people first settled Iceland, 30% of the island was covered with beautiful birch forests. The Vikings, not knowing any better, used their typical methods of farming—slash and burn. They cut down just about every darn tree on the island. Then they paid the price because the winds blew all of the light topsoil away. Now only 2% of the island has trees although they are trying to increase that amount.

Today’s women tend to have children first and then get married. Sometimes they wait as long as ten years. Many times when they tie the knot it is for religious reasons or for inheritance. We saw a program about this before we left home. Some Icelandic women and men have children by multiple partners and they all seem to get along in order to raise the children. However, Iceland has become a destination wedding for couples from other countries. Interesting.

Icelanders are stoic people. They don’t easily show their emotions. However, they are very much into revenge, like the Vikings. They don’t get mad, they get even.

Árni was fond of telling us that English and Icelandic are two versions of the same language. In fact 255 English words have roots in the Icelandic language. For example “window” comes from the Icelandic word for “wind eye.” Some of the days of the week are another example. Friday comes from Freya Day. Freya is the Norse goddess of love. Thursday comes from Thor’s Day.

Housing in Iceland is outrageously expensive. There is no custom of renting as most people buy. Young people these days can’t afford to buy. In order to get their children out of their house, parents end up purchasing an apartment for them. It is a problem the government is working on. Immigrants to the country need a place to live and they can’t afford to buy so housing is a big issue.

I also have some facts specific to Heimaey Island. It is the largest producer of fish which makes sense. They are practically sitting on top of the fishing banks. The town is the second largest fishing port in Iceland. Now they are working on farming fish on land. They “grow” them on land in tanks and then when they are large enough, put them out in ocean waters.

Geothermal power has not been used on Heimaey. In the old days they heated with oil. The town first got continuous water and electricity when lines were put into the island from the mainland. That happened in 1968. Of course the eruption came just a few years later and messed that all up. For ten years after the eruption, they used the heat of the lava to warm water. Now they have a heat exchanger. They still get fresh water and electricity from the mainland.

As on the mainland, handball and fútbol are the main sports. The island has won the Iceland handball championship three times in a row. Chess is also huge in all of Iceland.

The coldest month on Heimaey is January when it gets down to 30 degrees. Not too bad. They can thank the Gulf Stream for that.

We had learned a bit about the pirate raid on the island in 1627. The pirates invaded in order to get slaves. Three hundred pirates came into town and kidnapped 360 Icelanders. They took the captives to Algeria where they sold them in the slave market. Thirty-seven of the captives were killed. Interestingly, the pirates were mostly Dutch. Letters relatives received from the captives told a much different story than you might guess. The letters showed that many lived lifes much better than they had in Iceland. One young woman ended up being pampered by a Turkish ruler.

One last tidbit from the Westman Islands….when the ships evacuated the people during the eruption, they had to sail over boiling sea water which was dangerous because the ships sucked in sea water to cool the engines down. They had no choice though except to sail through the hot water.

And that catches me up with what I learned on the pre-trip :-). And faster than it took me to write all of that, we were in Selfoss at the hotel. Árni made the trade-off to Neil. He was off to catch the bus to Reykjavik. He is preparing for a performance in which he will be dancing. Too bad we’ll miss that. I was happy he had come out of retirement to take care of us but I knew he was ready to get back home. We all wished him well.

Neil who is actually from Ireland originally, handed out our keys. He gave us an hour to get situated, then we were to meet him downstairs for an orientation walk. This time it took longer to get organized in the room than it normally does. I had to reorganize everything once my big bag was delivered. I was so happy to see more clothes and my tennis shoes! Plus now I had more than one pair of pants :-). I managed to get everything squared away in time to get downstairs.

Our orientation walk ended up being much more than that. I can tell that Neil is going to blow my mind with information. He is great though. He is a natural teacher. He makes it all interesting and has a nice sense of humor. Like I said, he is Irish. He came to Iceland for grad school and fell in love with the country. He has been here ever since. Seeing him it’s difficult to believe that he is over 70 years old. He looks like he is in his early 50s.

After repeating our names several times to imprint them on his memory, he began by telling us that Selfoss came about because of a bridge. The Ölfusá River is the largest river in Iceland. The people needed to be able to cross it so they decided to build a bridge. The town of 10,000 people grew up around the bridge. Now “foss” means waterfall in Icelandic. There are no waterfalls here so it is a mystery as to why the town is named Selfoss. Wikipedia says it is named for the rapids in the river. Of course, we all know that Wikipedia isn’t always correct.

The country and the town have strong connections to the United States. They go back to before our entry into WWII. At that point Iceland was determined to be neutral. They had no military and were economically the poorest country in Europe. Great Britain was terribly afraid that Germany would take control of Iceland and then disrupt communication between the UK, the US, and Canada. So in 1939 England asked if Iceland would allow a military presence from the UK onto the island. Iceland refused. Not what Churchill wanted to hear. As a result, 700 Royal marines were sent in and they took control of Reykjavik on the same day that Churchill became Prime Minister. In one stroke Iceland was changed forever. Eventually thousands of UK troops were stationed on the island. They had to be housed, fed, and entertained. Iceland had no real infrastructure so Great Britain began building it in order to sustain their troops. This created a boom time in Iceland.

By 1941 the war wasn’t looking good for the British. They needed the troops in Iceland in North Africa and Europe. They couldn’t afford to leave them where they were. Desperate, Churchill asked Roosevelt if the U.S. would go into Iceland and replace them. Roosevelt was hesitant. The anti-war sentiment in the country was strong. He finally agreed that if Iceland invited us into the country, he would send troops; however, he would not send troops as an occupying force. Iceland agreed. They were happier to have us than the Brits. We weren’t in the war so Germany probably wouldn’t attack them because we were there. They might have if the British had stayed.

Once we arrived in Iceland, we continued building up the infrastructure. We built Keflavik Airport which is now their international airport. We actually controlled it until 2006 when we completely pulled out of Iceland. Anyway, things were going well. The women of Iceland really liked American soldiers. They were well-groomed, had money, and most importantly, they could and would dance. The Americans brought jazz and blues to the island country and they became extremely popular. However, the government did not like the fact of African-American soldiers being in Iceland. They tried to force the U.S. to keep them out.

Now Iceland had invited the U.S. into the country with the unspoken notion that we would leave as soon as the war was over. However, after the war, the Cold War kicked off. We needed to be in Iceland more than ever to monitor communications in the USSR. So we stayed. Truman sweetened the deal by giving the country $40 million in Marshall Aid. I think it was the most we gave to any country. Iceland used the money wisely to build up their economy. They built hydroelectric stations, created industry. They went in ten years from basically no economy to a booming one. In 1949 they became a founding member of NATO and signed a special defense agreement with the U.S. which allows us to have a military base in the country.

The country did have one concern while we had soldiers over there. Icelandic women really liked American soldiers. As a result, many an Icelandic girl ended up married to an American soldier and moving to the U.S. The government was not happy with this drain of young women from the country so they tried to ban marriage between the two. I’m not sure how that worked out for them.

So you might say that between Great Britain and the U.S., we gave Iceland’s economy the kick in the fanny which it needed to get going. The island went from a backward, poor country to one with a great economy in just a handful of years. That’s pretty darn amazing.

Iceland is the most Americanized country in Europe. At one point, there was talk of it becoming the 51st state! Instead on July 17, 1944 it became an independent democracy.

Now you would think that Iceland would have been happy when we pulled completely out of the country. Not so. We caught them flat-footed because we made the decision unilaterally. We made the decision and did it. We had Afghanistan and Iraq going on. We didn’t think being in Iceland was important any more. However, it meant that Iceland lost all of the money that our soldiers brought in. It also meant that they had to figure out how to run an international airport and hire the crew to run it. The Americans had always done all of that. It was new territory. Although we don’t have troops on the ground, Iceland does allow us to park our nuclear subs just outside of Reykjavik Harbor. They can’t come into the harbor but they can be close to land. The one requirement Iceland has is that they don’t have nuclear missiles.

Selfoss’ connection to the U.S. also goes back to the war as well. There was an RAF field outside of the town. During the war a bomber called the Hot Stuff was due to land at it. The crew of this bomber had completed 31 successful missions. They were the first to complete 25. As a reward, the entire crew was going home where they would begin a campaign for war bonds. However, the plane was commandeered by General Anderson who was in command of the European Theater of Operations at the time. He was flying in to participate in meetings about the invasion in Normandy.

One the day the bomber was to land in Selfoss, the weather was horrible. They were unable to land there so they flew on to Reykjavik where the weather was also bad. The plane ended up crashing. It was one of the worst crashes in Iceland’s history. Fourteen men died including General Anderson. One tail gunner survived. It was a terrible loss for the Allies. But that is our connection to the town albeit a sad one.

After our history lesson, we put jackets on and braved the outdoors. It had been cloudy and windy when we had arrived. It still was now. We walked across the street from the hotel to the old dairy which is now a modern food court. The town is in the process of restoring their older buildings. They are thinking ahead. A new bridge is being built across the river but it isn’t in Selfoss. The new road to the bridge will bypass the town. So they are looking for ways to bring people into town. They are hoping that by rebuilding the old town, people will want to come and visit.

The inside of the old dairy was very nicely done. It had a steep gabled green roof. There were all kinds of eateries from tacos (takkos) to Vietnamese food and even a museum on skyr which is the Icelandic version of yogurt only much better.

Out the other side of the building was a courtyard surrounded by restored buildings. There were several nice restaurants as well as shops selling handicrafts, etc. It was a pleasant area. Neil pointed out places as we walked where we might want to eat the next two nights as they would be on our own. He suggested making reservations as well because this weekend there is a festival in town. We do seem to be hitting them lately.

We also learned a bit about architecture. Mr. Samuelsson was the major architect of Iceland back in the early 1900s. He designed all of the important national buildings. His two signature features are steep gabled roofs and basalt columns. The dairy is a great example of his work. We had a nice conversation about architecture as we stood in front of a sod-roofed house. We even met the lady who was renting it from a man in town.

Part of our walk took us along the river where we heard our first tale of the trip :-). I was a happy camper. In the middle of the river Neil pointed out a tiny island with a Christmas tree on it. Well, way back during the days of the Vikings there was a farmer with many children but only one daughter. She was named Jóra and was actually a troll but nobody ever talked about that.

Now Vikings love stallion fighting which is where two stallion are put together with a female horse in heat. This causes the two stallions to fight each other. Well, Jóra’s dad had a champion stallion that was undefeated. A neighbor with a strong stallion challenged Jóra’s father so they brought the two horses together. Jóra liked her father’s stallion so she watched the fight. When it appeared that he would lose, Jóra ran over to the challenging horse and ripped one of its hind legs off and ran away with it. She ran all of the way to the Ölfusá River. It was a wide and fast river with no way over it but she had to get to the other side to keep from getting caught. So she grabbed a huge rock from the cliff near the river and threw it into the water. She was able to use it like a stepping stone to get to the other side.

The story does not end here although that is how the tiny island was created. Nobody knows how the Christmas tree got there. It isn’t in the saga. Anyway, Jóra continued running until she came to a cave which she decided to make her home. As time passed, she became more and more troll-like. She began killing all of the living creatures around her, including people. The villagers were terrified of her.

Finally one brave young man vowed to kill the woman troll and end her reign of terror. He traveled all of the way to Norway to find out from the king how to kill her. The king gave the young man a silver-bladed ax. Then he told him how to kill the troll.

“Go to the cave of Jóra at sunrise in Whitsunday. She will be asleep then as all evil creatures are. She will be sleeping on her stomach. Take the ax and strike her with the blade right between the shoulders. When she is dead, take the ax to the river near her and throw it in.”

The young man did exactly as the king had instructed him. After killing Jóra, he ran with the blade to the river and threw it in. That river has been called the Ax River ever since.

Typical of Icelandic sagas, it doesn’t have a good ending for Jóra although she ended up being the bad guy of the tale. It is rather typical of the sagas though. I’m sure I’ll be hearing many more as the days go by 🙂

With the story we completed our walk and we were on our own until our trip briefing at 5:25. Doug and I were both hungry as it was pushing 3 PM and we hadn’t had lunch yet. I had discovered a hot dog stand before we left home that was suppose to have the best hot dogs in Iceland. So we decided to eat there. It was just next door which was quite convenient. The dog was tasty plus I was starving. The fries were good as well. Nothing fancy but it hit the spot and was enough to tide us over until dinner.

After we ate we still had some time so we decided to walk down to the Bobby Fischer Center. It was interesting to see once but I wouldn’t go back. It was $10/person which I thought was rather steep. The center was on the second floor so it was really warm in there as well.

I did learn a good deal about the chess master that I didn’t know. Actually I knew very little about him other than he went crazy towards the end of his life. Sometimes I think geniuses are just too tightly wound. It has to be a burden when you are so much smarter than everybody else.

Bobby Fischer was a wunderkind and took the chess world by surprise when he was just a young boy. He started garnering serious attention at 13. It can’t have been easy dealing with all of that public attention when you are so young. We’ve seen what fame has done to so many of our child actors. Very few escape unscathed.

Anyway, Bobby kept on with his chess until he finally was playing the Russian champion Boris Spassky for the world chess championship. The 21 matches were held in Reykjavik in the handball stadium (I saw it last time I was here). It was the only place large enough to hold the crowds they were expecting. Even back then Iceland was crazy about chess.

The championship was pretty crazy. Bobby was late getting to Iceland as he was afraid the Russians would shoot his plane down. Even then it appears he had mental issues. Henry Kissinger actually called and asked him to play. Ultimately he showed up but he made an error in the first game and lost to Spassky. He flat out didn’t show up for game two so all of a sudden, he was down two games. People begin thinking that Spassky was going to stomp Fischer. However, Bobby came roaring back and won the tournament making him a world champion chess player. And basically he never really played again.

However, in 1992 a rematch was organized between he and Spassky who he had become friends with during their match in Iceland. It was played in Yugoslavia which was under UN sports sanctions because of the war in Yugoslavia when it was breaking up. Even though he was warned he would be in big trouble if he went and played, Fischer did it anyway. He won but was never able to return to the U.S. again. He lived in the Philippines for a while and Japan. He even married a Japanese woman. It was when he was trying to fly out of Tokyo to go to the Philippines that he was taken into custody and held in a Japanese detention center for nine months. The charge was an expired passport.

Since he was popular in Iceland still, Fischer wrote to the government and threw himself on their mercy. Iceland gave him citizenship and brought him back to the country. He lived the next two years before his death in Iceland. Although he was seriously mentally ill by this point, the Icelandic people never stopped loving him. At least he died among people who cared about him.

He was a very difficult man. Although he was of Jewish ethnicity, he was very anti-Semitic. When he was told about September 11th, he said he was glad and that the U.S. deserved it. Bitter words from a bitter, ill man who had a genius for a game. So sad.

I did learn one more interesting piece of trivia at the center. The musical “Chess” is loosely based on the chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. It was written by Tim Rice who co-wrote several musicals with Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Evita”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”). He wrote “Chess” with the two men from ABBA! I never knew.

By the time we got back to the hotel from the center, we didn’t have much time until our briefing. The briefing was much like all others: introductions, expectations, itinerary, etc. It took an hour though. By then it was time for dinner which was here at the hotel as well. It was a lovely buffet with delicious lamb as well as fish and vegetarian options. The cauliflower soup was especially tasty.

Tomorrow we begin our real first day of mainland Iceland. After visiting a wool studio, we are hitting the Golden Circle which includes the original Geysir from which all other geysers have derived their name, Gullfoss Waterfall, and Thingvellir National Park. This is basically a repeat for me but I’m excited to be seeing it all again.

DAY 4: WALKS, BOAT RIDES, & BELUGAS ON HEIMAEY ISLAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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I literally cannot imagine a better kickoff to our Iceland trip than this adventure in the Westman Islands. It has been positively a joy from start to finish. Heimaey means home and this island definitely feels like a place you could call home. I just love it. I felt the same way about Tasmania in Australia. Something about these small islands just strikes a chord deep inside me.

Our day dawned with pristine skies yet again. The temperature was in the 50s but it felt much warmer. I’m beginning to wonder why I bothered bringing my fleece jacket with me. So far it has stayed in my carry-on. That’s not a complaint :-). As today was our day for tracking down the adorable puffins, I was thrilled that we had sunny skies and no wind.

We started our pursuit with a bus ride to the northwest portion of the island which is just over 5 square miles in size. It was a short ride and soon we were hiking along the cliffs enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine. At this point I hadn’t realized we were tracking puffins. I thought we had just stopped for a Kodak moment. I had both cameras but left my monocular in my backpack on the bus. Mistake. Live and learn.

Although the hike was easy, we had some exciting moments along the way before we even spotted the puffins. I slid in some loose gravel going down an incline which made Árni nervous. I was fine. I just hate going downhill in that kind of stuff. Then as I stood close to the edge admiring the view, I felt the wind from somebody falling. He was right behind me and he came darn close to going over the edge. That scared the tar out of Árni and me. Fortunately our gentleman was okay. He had stepped into a hole and went tumbling. He was very lucky. Another time one of our ladies was running towards the edge for some reason. Árni went tearing after her. I think he was afraid she didn’t see the edge and would run right off the cliff. After that incident, he laid down some rules 🙂

Despite all of these mishaps, we were all excited about seeing puffins. And there nestled on ledges in the cliff were several. They are just so darn cute! I was snapping photos for all I was worth. I wanted to get at least one that was decent. They were at the limit of my zoom so I wasn’t sure how they would turn out.

Puffin and seagull hanging out on a cliff ledge

We enjoyed watching them flitter around—they have to flap their wings so fast and so many times to fly. They reminded me of hummingbirds. You can recognize them by how they fly without even seeing that trademark bill. We learned that they arrive in Iceland generally in April to nest. They are actually true sea birds that live at sea until its time to breed and nest. The pairs mate for life and always return to the same burrow. That’s right, burrow. They make a burrow in the ground and construct the nest inside. They create a second burrow that becomes their toilet. I thought that was a nifty factoid. Another interesting fact is if the puffin male reaches the burrow before the female, he will wait a day and a half for her. If she doesn’t show up, he goes out and finds another mate. No long grieving period for him. If she returns after he has picked a replacement, he kicks the new “wife” out and goes back to his original one. Love among the puffins is complicated 🙂

Puffins lay only one egg, much like penguins. I guess that makes the odds better for the chick’s survival. It’s much harder to feed two chicks than it is one. That’s why when two penguin eggs hatch, one usually dies as the parents mostly feed the one that is stronger and has a better chance of survival. Anyway, the egg hatches after about 42 days and the parents feed the chick day and night for the next 42 days. When he/she is strong enough to fly, the parents leave to go back to the sea. The now pufflings are left to find their own way to the sea. They begin their flight at night towards the light of the moon. It is their guide. However, these days the lights of the village confuse the poor things and many end up in the village flying into buildings, etc. It is the job of the children to round up these lost pufflings and take them to the rescue center that we visited yesterday. The workers there take their vitals and make sure they are in good health, then release them into the sea. The pufflings will spend the next two years only out at sea. Then the instinct to mate takes over. They find a mate, create a burrow, and begin the process all over again.

Icelanders use to hunt puffins and some still eat puffin. I heard that it is quite tasty. After seeing them, I’m not sure I could eat them. In recent years their numbers have started to dramatically decline. Scientists believe that global warming is the culprit. The seas where they mate have gotten warmer and the fish they eat have moved. The birds are starving. Because of their declining numbers, they are listed as “vulnerable.” A law has been passed that you cannot snare a puffin that has a fish in its mouth. That means it has a chick that it is feeding. Kill the parent and you kill the chick as well. The people who hunt them don’t do it with a gun. They lie in places where puffin are known to go and use nets to catch them. Then they pull them out of the net and break their neck. I’m not a big fan of that.

We enjoyed the birds for quite a while and then continued our stroll on the edge of the cliff. You couldn’t ask for more dramatic scenery. The black lava cliffs jutting straight up from the depth of the blue ocean. The verdant growth of grass along the top of the cliffs.…I’m doing an awful job of trying to describe the sheer magnificence of this place. Words just fail me. And no picture can truly do it justice either. Some in our group said these cliffs reminded them of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. They do a little bit. They also remind me of Hawaii as well. Be that as it may, it was a fabulous day to stroll along the cliff bird watching, island watching (small island dotted the waters off of the cliff), and just enjoying the feel of the sun on my face.

Tracking puffins on the cliffs of northeaster Heimaey Island

We did learn a bit about the newest island of the archipelago. It is called Circe and it was “born” in 1963 from an eruption in the sea. It is a bit in the distance but with some imagination you can see that it kind of resembles a mouse with a long tail. Somebody said it looked more like a cat to them and I had to agree. This island is only open to scientists and the occasional film maker filming a documentary. It is strictly regulated because the scientists want to study how life comes to be on a brand new island. Literally everything the scientists take to the island has to be packed up and taken out, even human waste. They made that rule after a tomato plant sprouted up on the island. The scientists had been eating tomatoes and the seeds had gone through their system. So now even poop has to be bagged and carried out. The things I’m learning on this trip!

Our walk took us all of the way to the natural amphitheater where the festival is held every year. It also took us to the best golf course in Iceland. This particular course has also been voted as one of the top 50 golf courses. I’m not sure I’d want to play here. The wind was starting to pick up and I can just imagine trying to play golf when the wind is blowing like it normally does. I have to admit that we walked on the course. The place had just been inundated with festival people so the few of us couldn’t do any more damage to the course than they had. Plus it was easier to walk on the golf course—no holes to trip you up 🙂

From here we had a great view over to the mainland of Iceland and the volcano that disrupted air flights back in 2010—Eyjafjallajökull. Don’t even ask me to pronounce it! You could see most of the volcano although there were some clouds moving in. I’m not sure we’ll get a better view of it once we are on the mainland. I have to admit that it tickled my funny bone that I could see a natural amphitheater, a sand trap, and a volcano all at the same time.

Sand trap, amphitheater, & Eyjafjallajökull

We also saw the famous elephant. This is a rock formation that looks like an elephant with its trunk in the water as if getting a drink. It really does look like an elephant. People come from all over the world to see this rock formation. It was neat. One of the most curious things we saw was a monument to the 200 Islanders who followed their hearts and religious beliefs to Utah back in the mid 1800s. Yep, some Mormon missionaries had come to the island and had converted 200 citizens in the village. I would never have guessed that in a million years. The memorial is quite nice with a young girl holding out both hands. The reason the statue is in this particular location is the girl is literally pointing to the spot down below where the missionaries baptized the converts. They had to do it in secret because it was against the law to be anything but Lutheran at this point in time. Strange but true.

Our driver Alfred picked us up here and drove us to our next stop—the town museum. We had walked passed it yesterday. It was a square building not too far from City Hall. The museum shared the building with the town library. I was dying to peek inside but I curbed my impulse and followed the group up the stairs to the museum. We had a nice young man named Brekkie give us the tour. We found out after he finished that we were his first ever tour. He didn’t do a bad job at all.

The museum was small but it did a nice job hitting the highlights of the village and the island. Of course there was a section about the eruption in 1973. We didn’t spend much time there as we were going to the museum dedicated to the eruption this afternoon. Another section dealt with the Mormon exodus to Utah. It wasn’t only Islanders that converted and went to the States. Two hundred people from the mainland went as well. In fact the two main missionaries to the island had been Icelanders who had converted. They came to the island to spread the word.

We also learned about Þjóhátíð the festival. It has been going on for a very long time although during COVID they couldn’t hold it. Last year was the first festival after the pandemic and it smashed attendance records. Literally the entire village is involved. Families take their white festival tents and set them up in a specific location at the amphitheater. “Streets” are marked in this village of tents. Visitors have to either camp out or find a place to rent which is very expensive. On Friday night they have a big bonfire. On Saturday night they have fireworks. Sunday night is the sing-along where they sing a mishmash of Icelandic songs. Each year a song is written specifically for the festival. In the individual tents people perform. Other people can visit the tents and enjoy the performances. I know Helga and Arnór sang during the festival in their tent. I’ve read that Islanders love to sing. All in all during the three days people eat, drink, sing, and have a great time.

The museum had a small room dedicated to important women of the islands. The room was decorated like a typical woman’s space would have been back in years gone by with a loom and other accouterments. It was nicely done. The walls were decorated with short pieces about some of the special women. One was the midwife who helped discover what was killing the babies on the island. Another was a mother who wrote poetry after she lost one of her children. I believe that was Una (don’t ask me her last name). An impressive woman named Halldór Laxness had a crater on Mercury named after her. She was a writer. All of the 414 craters on Mercury are named after famous artists, authors, composers. They have to have been well-known for 50 years before the date the crater is named. I believe they have to have been dead for three years, too. I thought that was pretty nifty. I enjoyed reading about the tough and independent women of the island. It’s nice to see they were honored in the museum.

Since fishing is so vital to the island, there was a big section on that. It talked about different fishing boats, the dangers of fishing, working in a herring factory. There was even a mock-up of a dorm room for a fish factory worker. When a boat came in, the fish had to be processed immediately or it would go bad. It was hard labor.

All in all, I enjoyed our visit here. Brekkie was nervous but he did fine. He was a nice young man but I ditched him to go check out the library. It was small but inviting. I walked in and wandered around a bit. They had cute displays for the kiddos. One was a board filled with Viking ships with the name of their favorite book on it. What a great idea. Books are quite important in Iceland. Every Christmas Eve each member of the family receives books and they spend the rest of the evening reading them. There is a big boom in publishing every year just in time for Christmas. As a result the literacy rate in Iceland is 99+%. That is incredible and totally fabulous.

I pried myself out of the library and Doug and I headed down the hill towards our hotel. We dropped off some of our stuff and then headed off for lunch on our own. We ended up at a place called Krain. We had walked by it several times. It wasn’t far from the hotel at all. It was between there and a fish and chips place but when we saw all of the locals eating at Krain’s, we went with that one. I snagged us a table outside in the sunshine while Doug fetched a menu. He decided on fish and chips while I ordered a cheeseburger. We both got a Gull beer. The food came out quickly and was tasty. I enjoyed my burger. It made a quick and easy meal. We were finishing up when another couple from our group joined us. We stayed and chatted with them while they ate.

We only had a few minutes before we had to meet Árni for our bus ride around the island, the eruption museum, and our hike up Eldfell. I lightened the load in my backpack as much as I could. I left my camcorder behind. I could film with my iPhone. Really, I mostly had my backpack to carry my bottle of water in.

By the time we went outside to catch the bus, the wind had started blowing much harder and clouds covered the sky. There was no sunshine to warm us up. This was the Iceland weather I had expected. I was glad I hadn’t left my rain jacket in the room. I needed it. I was starting to wish I had brought my light jacket as well.

We had a surprise when the bus finally showed up. Alfred was late, but it was worth it as he was driving a huge bus! This morning we had been in one barely large enough to fit us all. This one was ginormous. Of course when we filed inside, I discovered why it was bigger—there were other people inside. Yep, we had strangers on our tour. That was a first. It was fine though. There wasn’t that many of them and we still had more than enough room to spread out. It was just strange having people tour with us.

Alfred took over the guiding responsibilities while we were on the bus. He did all of the talking. It always makes me nervous when people drive as well as talk. Something isn’t getting their full attention. However, traffic is not a big worry here on the island so I guess it’s okay. Alfred was quite knowledgable and had a good sense of humor. We made a quick Kodak stop back at the amphitheater. We were suppose to check out the outlines of settlement houses that were here back in the 9th century. Instead we took photos of the replica of an old turf house. You had to pay to go inside but the gentleman, dressed in a period costume, was nice enough to answer our questions. I was never really sure where the outline of the old houses were. Oh, well….

Back on the bus, we almost left without one of our couples. Actually, it wasn’t a couple from our OAT group but a couple that was with us for this bus ride. That led to Alfred telling us some true stories about passengers being forgotten like the one lady who spent three hours searching for herself. That one made the news. She had been wearing a red outfit which really caught the guide’s attention. When they all gathered back together, he didn’t see the lady in red. The bus load of people as well as the guide searched for her without luck. They called in the police. Now there was an official search going on for her. The head of the search asked if the guide was sure she was missing and the guide was positive. There was no lady in red on the bus. The head searcher went to the bus anyway and counted. He counted 35 people which is how many the guide was suppose to have. It turns out that the woman had changed her clothes and then sat in a different spot on the bus. Oy vey! True story. She spent all of that time searching for herself.

We drove a bit further into the emerald green countryside. I saw a group of Icelandic horses on one side of the road and sheep on the other. We saw more sheep as we drove further up the road. Soon Alfred pulled the bus over into a car park and we were told to get out. I thought it was another photo stop. I obviously did NOT learn my lesson this morning. Of course it would have been helpful if anybody had told us what we were doing at this stop. Ack! It turns out we were hiking up a hill to see another company of puffins. And my monocular was in my backpack on the bus. Sigh….

It turns out that I was fine without it. I was kicking myself though all of the way up the path. The only thing that distracted me was the sheep chewing its cud right next to the path. We didn’t bother it at all. She just kept right on chewing.

We didn’t want to linger on the path because Alfred got word that a cruise ship group was on their way. We didn’t want to get caught up in their mayhem so we hustled. What greeted our eyes was well worth the burst of speed. At the viewing platform we could see literally hundreds, if not a thousand puffins. I was flabbergasted. They were up and down the green slope next to the platform. They were floating on the water. They were swinging through the air in huge groups. It was a sight I will never forget. The birds weren’t the only critter making good use of the green slope either. There were several sheep grazing away up the hill from the birds.

I was snapping pictures like a crazy woman. I couldn’t stop myself. Both the sheep and the birds were just so photogenic. With their big beaks the puffins have such comical faces. And once you got use to looking, you could start to see the burrows on the slope. That was nifty. The more I looked, the more gobsmacked I was at the number of puffins. If we had seen nothing more than this, coming to the Westman Islands would have been worth the trip. Everything else we’ve seen and done has just been tons of icing on the cake.

We enjoyed the birds and the sheep for as long as we could but we wanted to get out of there before the cruise people arrived. So we boogied back to the bus. We finished going up Stórhöfo which use to host U.S. military who had radar up here. Stórhöfo was pretty darn high and we had fabulous views which were hard to take in because the wind was blowing like crazy. Islanders say that it is the windiest place in Europe. After today I believe them. The name Stórhöfo mean “great cape.” This peninsula is the southern most point of Heimaey Island.

The mighty winds blew us back onto the bus and back down to the village for our visit to Eldheimar which is the eruption museum. We didn’t have a great deal of time to explore it if we wanted to climb Eldfell so we hurried inside and nabbed our audio guides.

The museum was well done. It was built around a house that they discovered to be mostly intact when they dug it out from beneath the tephra. Of course the inside was destroyed as well as the items inside but amazingly the house still stood. Most had collapsed under the weight of the tephra and ash. Over thirty years after she had to evacuate, the woman who had lived there with her children and husband, returned to her home. She was the first person inside.

Because so many had lost their homes (400 families) and it was such a personal thing, the village decided to built a museum and to build it around this house. The audio guide walked us around the house and through its rediscovery. Through interviews with her and her husband who died in 1999 as well as interviews with others who survived the eruption, you learned the story of what happened that fateful night. Plenty of photos and video clips of the action brought it all to life from the first discovery of the eruption to the evacuation to the digging out and returning home. A documentary at the end tied it all together. One of the voices narrating will become quite familiar in the coming days as it was the voice of Neil who will be our trip leader for the rest of our time on Iceland as well as Greenland.

After the museum, it was time for our visit to Eldfell the volcano created by the 1973 eruption. Alfred took us a short way up the hill to the trailhead. All but two of us tackled the looming volcano. By now it was really cool as the wind was whipping around us. I was so thankful for my rain jackets. It helped protect me from the wind. Doug and I were the first to head up the trail. We went at a good pace because we were running out of time for the climb. We had dinner reservations we had to make. We did well until we took a wrong turn and got called back. Actually, we could have made it up the volcano but it was the steeper route and Árni wanted us to take the longer but gentler trail.

Now I am not bad at hiking but I am terrible at coming downhill on scree and gravel. This hike was full of both with some pretty steep sections. I made it up a third of the way with no issue although I was a bit concerned about getting back down. At the halfway point there was a discussion about whether to keep going or not. We took photos of the great view of Vestmannaeyjar. We also got photos into the crater of the volcano. Then we marshaled onward. About two-thirds of the way several of us stopped. There was a really steep section that worried me for the trip back down. After breaking my foot last year, I am much more cautious than I use to be. I hated not going all of the way but I thought it was for the best. Árni agreed, especially since he had seen me slip this morning. Doug and a few others continued up. I knew he would make it with no problem. In fact he got down and back to the bus before I did. And that is exactly why I didn’t finish the climb. I would still be climbing down :-). I know my limits.

Since we were running late, we went straight to the restaurant which was just around the corner and down a block from the hotel. It was another one we have walked by several times. Gött was very good and very crowded. Every time we’ve walked passed, it has been packed. It was good that we had reservations. We had a table in the back that we squeezed into. There was another big group back there as well. Dinner was suppose to be seafood pasta but there wasn’t a lick of pasta in it. It was seafood in a sauce with vegetables on top. It tasted great despite the lack of pasta. For dessert we had a funky cheesecake. It wasn’t my favorite. The crust tasted like it was made from cornflakes. We did try another new beer. This one was one of theirs—Gött beer. It was just okay. All in all, it was a nice way to round out the day—good food and good company. Then it was back to the room to pack up. Our time on Heimaey Island was almost at an end.

Tomorrow we retrace our steps. We take the ferry back to Selfoss and back to Hotel Selfoss. It will be a nice reunion with our luggage! But we will have to say goodby to Árni which is always a sad occasion. He will hand us over to Neil and we will meet the two new members of our Iceland family. I pity them. We have two new names to remember. They have twelve 🙂

DAY 3: HEIMAEY ISLAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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What a blessing today was! I know I’ve said “I love Iceland” before, but today really cemented my feelings for this small island country. The land so stark yet lushly green it takes your breath away. The history of the people on this island of Heimaey fighting to save their homes, their neighbors’ homes, and their village, brings tears to your eyes as well as filling your heart with awe at the pragmatic bravery of these island people. The beautiful waters of the Atlantic that surround this island, warmed by the Gulf Stream and bringing life and prosperity to the people, make you want to savor each second you spend out on it. Such was our day—enjoying the village, the people, the waters, and the land. In a word, it was perfection.

Today after a bit of a sleep-in which was heavenly and a small breakfast, we began our day with another walk. This time we ambled through various neighborhoods in the village. Árni (pronounced Adney) explained why all of the houses we saw were very nice. The people living here are quite wealthy. And why would fishermen be so wealthy? The island is situated almost on top of the fishing banks. They are able to go out each day and make big hauls and sell fresh and frozen fish to markets in Europe for top dollar. And because they are so close, they didn’t have to go out and spend weeks at a time trying to fill their boats with their catch. They go out each day and come back home each night.

The islanders also love their island and don’t really consider themselves Icelanders. They are Vestmenn which stems from the old Nordic word for the Irish. Their three forefathers fled from from Ireland (men from the West) after they killed their master. The attitude and customs on the island very much reflect this heritage. People on the mainland call them Islanders. Shoot, they call themselves Islanders as a badge of honor.

Just down from the hotel we came across a group of young boys “cleaning” up trash. Of the four, only one was actually working. We stopped and talked with them for a few minutes. I think they actually enjoyed it. The one working was quite talkative. They are employed and get paid 700 kroner an hour. They liked it when Árni told them they were slave labor. They kept repeating it the way kids do when something tickles them. Somebody else in our group said that they were definitely government employees because four people were sent to do a job but only one was working. The other three were watching. The boys got into the spirit and pointed out a group of girls working as well. They were all on their phones. We all got a good laugh out of that. It was refreshing though to have a conversation with young people that was cheerful, unforced, and with absolutely no eye rolling.

As we moved on Árni explained that parents put children to work at a young age. It’s just what they do. His own parents had money but he went to work on a farm at the age of 8. He spent all four months of summer vacation there for several years. He loved it. When all of the field work was done, they would ride horses and just enjoy themselves. He was by far not the only child working there. His parents didn’t even know the people who owned the farm. They were just somebody a friend of his sister knew. Very trusting, these Icelanders are.

As we walked we enjoyed the beautiful gardens people had around their homes. It always surprises me how a country this far north has such verdant countryside and gardens. Each yard was a square of brilliant green, many with colorful blossoms highlighting the garden gnomes and even old boots used as planters. I found it curious that many yards had a solitary chunk of rock sitting in the middle of the yard. Some planted flowers around it while others circled it with smaller rocks. I know there is the custom of the “hidden” folk living in the rock but Árni said that the Islanders don’t really believe in the hidden folk so much. However, the women fantasize about elegant, clean elf lords carrying them away :-). Tolkien had a definite impact here. And Iceland had a true impact on him as well but more on that later.

The Islanders love their gardens and actually compete to have the prettiest one.

We wound our way up to the Lutheran Church. It was very simple on the outside with a memorial statue of a fisherman. It was a tribute to all sailors lost at sea. Árni convinced the caretaker to let us come inside. There, too, it was simple but beautiful. The white barrel ceiling was dotted with gold stars. The alter was simple with candles, a cross, and religious paintings behind it. To the left hung a wooden sailing ship from the ceiling. One of the stain glass windows depicted a group of men in a ship tossed by stormy waters. You can see their fear but Jesus is there calming them and the waters. In the loft above the front door stood the small pipe organ.

From the church we wound our way over to the local cemetery. Outside the gate was another ash pole. This one was even taller than the one by our hotel. It was taller than Árni. In the display next to it were photos of what the cemetery had looked like when it was filled with ash. It boggled the imagination.

In 1973 this cemetery was buried under six feet of ash.

The cemetery itself looked rather new. Rather most of the headstones looked new. Maybe they were replaced after the eruption. It was interesting to stroll amongst them and read the dates. One interesting tombstone was a statue of a young boy sitting and reading a book. I figured it was the grave of a young boy. Nope, this man lived to be a ripe, old age. He obviously loved to read. Or maybe he was a writer. I’ll never know.

From the cemetery we strolled through another neighborhood admiring the wooden facade on one house as well as the stone facade on its neighbor. You could tell these people really had money. Soon we came across a park with a green mountain looming up behind it. They had a giant multi-colored bouncing pad that several kids were enjoying. To be honest, it did look like great fun. A couple of mothers sat on a nearby bench talking and keeping a watchful eye on their offspring.

Near the park we saw the simple City Hall. It was pretty big considering how small the village is. Directly across the street from it was a huge, strange statue. Árni explained that it had been sculpted by one of Iceland’s most famous artists—Asmundarsafn. He loved creating interactive pieces and usually created them to be climbed on by children. This one was called the Mountain Woman. The Mountain Woman comes from a saga. Every July when they celebrate their independence from Denmark, the Mountain Woman comes down into town and tells a story. It is the highlight of the celebration. That is my kind of tradition.

Eventually we made our way back to the harbor where we were having our included lunch. It was at a nice place called Tanginn. It was a modern place and was hopping. Our table was reserved and I’m sure it was a feat to shoehorn a table for 13 into the corner. Lunch was a taco buffet along with three soup choices and various types of salads. I went with the Mexican soup and it was delicious with a bit of kick to it. Then I built my taco. I would have preferred the tortilla to have been warmed (it was on the cold side) but it tasted fine. The meat was spiced nicely and the salsa was delicious. I added a few more things that I wasn’t sure what they were. It all went down a treat.

After lunch we split into two groups for our RIB boat tour (rigid inflatable boat). We were in the first group which we were happy about. It meant that we were free for the rest of the afternoon to explore and visit the puffin rescue.

At our appointed time we met at the shack to don our coverall for the ride. We made quite the fashion statement once we got all geared up but at least we would stay warm and dry. And I had a pocket for my still camera. My monocular, phone, and camcorder were all hanging around my neck. I tucked my phone inside my coverall so it wouldn’t bang against the other two items.

Now I’ve ridden in RIBs before but never one quite like this. I’ve always sat on the side. This particular boat had seats of a different sort. You straddled a padded bolster. There was a grab bar in front of you attached to the seat back of the person in front of you. They had this seating arrangement in the front of the boat and again behind the captain. We, however, had to sit in back. The front was filled with a group of scientists and their equipment. Our tour was a bit out of the norm as we had to drive them out to a certain island and drop them off. Once they were ashore, we could move up to the front if we wanted.

The ride was so much fun! We jetted through the water of the harbor bouncing from swell to swell. Spray was flying but it was well away from us. Once we were free of the harbor, we picked up speed. We had a mission to accomplish.

And what a perfect day it was for boating! The sky was clear blue with nary a cloud. A cool breeze kept us from overheating in our coveralls. Sea birds dived and floated on the air currents. The water was a deep turquoise blue. The air was crisp and clean. Tiny green mountain islands punctuated the blue of the water. Up on their heights, I saw a single house on each island. I had no clue how those people got up there but I couldn’t blame them for wanting to live on these tiny islands. I wanted to stay out on the boat forever.

We all got excited when we began spotting puffins. They were much smaller than the seagulls and waggled their wings far more. It seemed like they had to work much harder at flying. As we moved closer to the scientists’ island, we began seeing large groups of them, some dipping down into the water going after fish. I hoped that we would stop and watch them after we had made the drop off. I wanted to see if I could get some pictures and video. It was too bumpy to even try while we were motoring along.

It was exciting watching the young people make it from the boat to the island. There was no dock, no real shore for them to land on. Basically they had to jump off onto a hunk of rock and cling to it. There was just enough room for them to stand and for their equipment and supplies. I wondered how they were going to make their way up the steep side of the rock when I notice ropes attached to the rock creating a path. I couldn’t imagine making that climb carrying heavy backpacks and containers of water while clinging to a rope. They were one tough group.

Once they were all safely ashore, we waved goodby and headed back for our official tour. Although we drove through the puffins again, we didn’t stop which was disappointing. I had snapped some shots while we were letting off the young people. None of them were great but at least I got a couple of fairly decent ones.

Puffins on the craggy cliffs on the uninhabited islands

Historically these small islands have been crucial to the Islanders. The islands are home to hordes of sea birds. The Islander children are trained starting at 8 to free climb up the cliffs of the neighboring islands. They used knotted ropes to swing over to ledges holding nests with eggs. Then they collect the eggs. This practice is called sprangan. The eggs are a valuable source of nourishment. The kids train on a cliff at the harbor. If they fall here, they fall on soft sod which is far better than falling on jagged lava and rock.

Our captain took us right next to the towering cliffs of one of the islands. You had to crane your head way back to see the top. Beneath each ledge you could see the tell-tale signs of birds—white poop. The cliffs were covered with it. Only a few of the ledges had kittiwakes as nesting season was over. However, a few still hung out here. They are beautiful white birds with dark gray on top of their wings. They are particularly prevalent here.

I wouldn’t want to climb these cliffs to gather eggs but the children here did.

Our driver also pointed out the island where he father taught him to climb the cliff at the age of 4. He said he had been scared to death. It no longer scares him as he has made the same climb a thousand times. I looked up that cliff and ropes or no ropes, I would be peeing in my pants if I had to do it!

The last site we motored to was a sea cave at the harbor. We could actually go right inside. At the mouth the light reflecting off of the water dappled the roof of the cave. The water was an emerald green that was achingly clear. To demonstrate the great acoustics of the cave, he played Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” Wow! Now I love that song particularly when Whitney sings it. So to hear it in this special location was just phenomenal. It made me cry. The only better way to end the tour would have been to sit amongst a company of puffins as they floated on the water and dived down for fish.

Back on dry land we divested ourselves of our stylish coveralls. We were now on free time. Doug and I made a beeline to the puffin rescue as it was closing in an hour. Plus it was literally just across the street.

I loved the Sea Life Trust Visitor Center! It was nicely educational which is always good. However, my favorite part was watching the critters even if they were behind glass. The puffins were first. It was feeding time although the birds didn’t seem that excited about it. They would peck at the fish a couple of times and then ignore it. Frankly, all of the drops of water on the glass made it difficult to get good photos and mostly the birds were simply standing there so we moved on. Next came the puffin hospital but you couldn’t see any of the puffins in there.

The big hit was the two beluga whales—Little Grey and Little White. They put on quite a show. When we got there, a family was next to the window enjoying the whales. Actually the three boys had scooter under the tape blocking the area in front of the window and were right next to the glass. It didn’t seem to bother Little Grey (we think she was the one as we had read that White was more shy). Little Grey put all of her best moves out there for the boys. She blew them a perfect bubble ring which was truly amazing. She would swim by on her back. She dragged a toy down to them. Best yet, she put her face right next to the youngest boy and then opened her mouth up wide like she was laughing at him. He was just a little bit excited 🙂

I could have watched the whales all day. They were endlessly fascinating and they seemed to enjoy “performing” for us, especially the boys. Even Little White got into the act. And they probably WERE performing. The two were bought from a water park in Shanghai where they had been performing for years. They made the 6,000 mile trek to Iceland to the rehabilitation center. The two will never be released into the wild as they have never learned how to hunt to feed themselves. However, the center has an open water pen where they spend a portion of ever year. Each year the time they spend in it is increased until eventually they will be able to stay there year round. This is the same pen where Keiko, otherwise known as Willy from the “Free Willy” movies, was brought. Although they tried to release Keiko to the wild, it was ultimately unsuccessful. He died after only a few months as he was unable to feed himself.

Both Little White and Little Grey were born in Russia. They were in a water park there for years until sold to the park in Shanghai. Then the rescue center bought them. They believe both whales were born in 2007 so they are approaching the age of 20.

We had hoped that we could look down into the beluga tank from up top but you couldn’t. That was disappointing. We could see that something at the surface would get their attention. Plus it just would have been nice to get a different view of them. Since there was no top portion before the exit, we made our way back where we ran into other members of our group who were now enjoying the whales. One was standing right next to the glass in her white down coat. She definitely got the whales attention. One kept bringing her toys and one kept opening her mouth right next to the glass. It was fun to watch.

We wandered further back to check out the puffins again and I was glad we had. This time a few of them were quite active. They actually got into the water and swam around. One even swam underwater for quite a while going after a fish that had fallen in. Another one floated right up to the glass and then shook his feathers, flinging water all over the place. I had to laugh watching them. They were so stinking cute!

All good things must come to an end and so did this. I forced myself to leave right at closing time although I would rather have stayed and watched more antics from these amazing creatures. I kicked myself that I was so involved in watching the whales that I failed to video anything or take any photos. I did with the puffins. Photos or not, I will never forget this incredible encounter. It’s a memory that will stay engrained on my heart forever.

Back to earth from such a sublime experience, we strolled back up the street to the hotel where we puttered around for a little bit. Then we headed down for Happy Hour at the local brewery—Brothers Brewery. Doug and I both got stouts. I got the Stout a leik which was an imperial stout (whatever that means!) while Doug got the Togarinn which was aged in a whiskey barrel. His was way to sweet for me. I liked mine much better although I have to admit it can’t compete with Guinness in Ireland.

We drank our beer outside while crunching fresh popped popcorn. The view was stunning with a green mountain rising above the buildings. The wind had started blowing so it was definitely much cooler than it had been all day. It was brisk but there is such a brilliant, clean quality to the air here. I really didn’t mind being a tad cool. It was too fabulous of a day to sit inside.

At 6:20 we met the rest of the group and Árni led us to the house where we were having dinner. It wasn’t a home-hosted meal although it felt like one. This couple originally had a restaurant where they would host groups. For whatever reason, they decided to do it in their home instead.

What a special evening it was! Arnór was the chef and had prepared dinner all from scratch. His wife Helga entertained us while he finished preparing the meal. She is quite the storyteller. While we enjoyed home-made bread with home-made tzatziki and a tomato-based spread (it was all SO delicious, I had two pieces of bread and I rarely eat bread), Helga told us their story.

She was 17 when the volcano erupted in 1973. The day the before eruption a storm blew up and struck the island with almost hurricane force winds. As a result, the fishing fleet remained in the harbor for the day. That night the local theater owner decided to open up for a special showing to entertain the fishing crews. Helga’s boy friend managed to score the last two tickets. Although the wind kept knocking her over, love found a way and she made it to the theater. During the show they had felt some tremors but blamed it on the storm outside. They didn’t know anything about earthquakes at that point in their lives). After the show young Arnór walked Helga back to her home. By now the storm had subsided and the air was calm. Helga entertained Arnór in her upstairs bedroom but the rule from her dad was that he must be out of her room by midnight.

The plot thickened. At 2:30 in the morning she woke up to her mother calling out her name as well as her younger brother’s. They were to get dressed immediately. A volcano was erupting! A fissure had opened in the ground running all of the way to the harbor. It was spewing fire. They must evacuate! Returning to her room, Helga noticed a dark form on the end of her bed. It was Arnór! He had fallen asleep in her room. The two were more terrified of the wrath of Helga’s father than of the eruption. However, after seeing the sky lit up with gouts of fire, they realized it was a true life and death situation and went downstairs, facing both of her parents. Her mother took it well. Her father shot Arnór daggers with his eyes but merely called the boy’s family and told them he was safe with them. The family then made their way to the harbor where they boarded a boat and evacuated.

Helga so eloquently told us this story and of how calm the people of the village were during the crisis. Nobody had hysterics. Nobody panicked. They all calmly did what they needed to do. Helga’s mother had even cooked a full breakfast for them to eat before they left the house. She didn’t know when they would eat again and doing something so routine made her calm. The true miracle of the night was the fact that all of the fishing boats were in the harbor because of the storm. Because of that, they were able to evacuate all but the 300 people remaining on the island to try to save their village. Only one person died because of the eruption. It was the toxic fumes that had accumulated in a basement that killed him, not the actual eruption.

Eight weeks later Helga’s parents returned to the island and their house which had been spared. Four hundred homes were lost. They were only allowed to return because her mother helped feed the crew fighting to save the village. Her husband was on the crew. Two years later Helga and her now husband Árno returned to the island where they had five children. They eventually purchased her childhood home from her parents and that is where we ate dinner.

She told their story so well that I felt like I was there with her that terrifying night. She filled it will humor as well as drama. I laughed and I cried. What a gift it was for her to share this with us.

If that wasn’t enough, Arnór‘s meal was as eloquent as Helga’s story. The fish was baked to perfection with the Islander’s miracle sauce added (caramelized onion cooked with lots and lots of butter) to give it that little extra. The slaw was unique as he added pineapple to it. Dessert was a fabulous chocolate brownie with white chocolate chunks served with home-made whipped cream and raspberry jam. It was heaven on a fork.

If THAT wasn’t enough, while we ate dessert and sipped ginger tea or French press coffee, they played and sang for us. Turns out they are musicians as well! He played the guitar while she played a flat drum-like instrument. I have no idea what it’s called. Anyway, they both sang and as they have done it for fifty years (they are now great grandparents), their voices were a perfect blend of harmonies.

They entertained us with an Icelandic festival song first then they moved on to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, back to the Beatles, and then to the song by the Turtles that they danced their first dance to. What a treat. We knew all of the songs except for the Icelandic one. It was an experience that was so beautiful. The coup de grace was seeing photos of Helga as a young hippy girl (that’s what she called herself) and Arnór as a young man. The last photo she shared was from two hours after the birth of their youngest child. Her daughter was the oldest and had assisted the midwife. She as well as her other siblings and Arnór were gathered around the happy mother and baby. What a beautiful photo and wonderful memory. It was made more poignant because she had told us earlier that they only have four children now. One of their sons had died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 31. But in that pragmatic Islander way, she added “But we had to go on living.” They have a little memorial for him on a small table in the dining room. In the picture he looked like a mustached Jack Black.

Dinner tonight was the perfect end to a perfect day. It’s hard to see how anything else on the trip could surpass this. But you never know. That’s the fun of travel. You never know what’s around the corner.

And tomorrow we will be on the hunt for puffins while we are on our bus tour of the island. We know they are here and haven’t migrated yet so I am hopeful. We are also exploring two museums which should be interesting. One is all about the islands. The Fire museum is about the 1973 eruption. I’m looking forward to seeing them both. And puffins!

DAY 1 & 2: FLYING TO ICELAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

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After two days of traveling and touring, my only quest at this point is for a good night’s sleep! I am falling asleep as I sit here typing. It has been a LONG couple of days and I just don’t bounce back like I use to. It stinks getting old!!!

However, I do have to say that Day 1 went quite well. It was just a travel day and traveling to Iceland isn’t all that bad. We left home around 8:30 AM to head to the airport in Tampa. It was quiet on the roads as it was a Sunday morning so we were making good time. We made it as far as the gas station before we had to stop. We were in Sam’s car since she was driving us and she had forgotten she was out of gas. After that, we were on our way, with the dog Leia in the backseat whining, drooling, and shedding all over the clothes I was going to spend the next two days in :-). Good thing I love that mangy mutt!

At Tampa International, it was fairly quiet. We got checked in quickly. We just had one small bobble. We could only get our boarding passes for the flight to Boston. Since our flight to Iceland was over six hours after our arrival in Boston, we couldn’t get them until we landed there. This was deja vu to my last trip to Iceland back in 2015 when I went with Doug’s mother Joyce and my sister-in-law Mabel. We had to get our boarding passes at the gate that time as well. I have to admit that I tried using both the Delta app and the Icelandair app to get the boarding passes but failed.

Since we were Economy to Boston, no lounge for us in Tampa. Instead, I stood in line for what seemed like forever to get my latte. The line was long but the workers were just incredibly slow. I could feel the sweat running down my back as I tried to patiently wait. I passed the time talking with the family in line behind me. Finally after what seemed like an hour, I finally had my first sip of caffeine for the day. Ahhhhh…..

Since the Starbucks wait was so long, I really didn’t have to wait all that long to board the flight. It was a full one. I was glad there was room for our carry-ons as they were making many people check theirs. And in a side note, our luggage was checked all of the way through to Keflavik even though we couldn’t get our boarding passes.

It was around a three hour flight which I passed by reading. The time went by quickly. We had a bit of turbulence as we landed. It was a rocky as we touched down but we landed okay and that’s all that mattered. Inside we made our way to the board of flights and gates as we had no clue as to where our gate was going to be much less the terminal we needed. Since we weren’t flying until 8:50 PM and it was only a little after 2, our flight wasn’t up yet. That always makes it challenging.

Doug found the gate somewhere online. We had to go to E Terminal. A nice lady told us we could walk or take a shuttle. Then we heard an announcement that the shuttle for E Terminal left from Gate A 11. We thought we had walked beyond it but we hadn’t. Of course we didn’t have a boarding pass to show that we needed E Terminal but we showed our ticketing information along with our passport and another nice lady let us board the shuttle. We probably could have walked it quicker but with the shuttle we were sure to get there. Plus we had nothing but time.

Now would probably be a good time to discuss the packing challenge for this trip :-). Doug was having to carry the result of it😜 Our pre-trip for Iceland is three nights in the Westman Islands. We were told to pack a carry-on bag for this portion of the trip. That was news to us. We knew we had to do carry-on for the Greenland post but until we talked to our trip leader, we had no clue we had to do it for the pre as well. As a result I had to use my larger carry-on instead of my carry-on with wheels. Although I did my best to lighten the load in it, my three-day bag was still REALLY heavy with a combo of technology and clothes. Not only did I need clothing for three nights, I also needed gear for cooler weather. Plus medicine, chargers, cables, iPad….it was one full bag. Since Doug didn’t want me to hurt my shoulder cause of my pinched nerve issue earlier this year, he carried it while I carried his camera bag. It wasn’t a fair trade by any means but he was determined.

We made it to E Terminal faster that I was a thought we would. We walked passed the gates looking for E7. Turns out that it was very close to the lounges in the terminal. Although we didn’t have boarding passes, we decided to throw ourselves on the mercy of the people manning the desk in the lounge. A very nice lady at the British Air Lounge which was also the lounge for Icelandair let us in after we showed her our ticket information. She told us that to get our boarding passes we would either have to go to the gate one hour prior to boarding or go out of security and get it at the ticket desk three hours before boarding. Neither option sounded appealing to me so when we found a place inside to sit, I tried getting our boarding passes through the apps once again. I kept getting error messages and rejections. So I took it once step further, I went online to Icelandair. There I was able to plug in a few bits of information and bingo, we had boarding passes! Technology is great when it works 🙂

By now we still had over five hours left to wait. I was so grateful to have the lounge to do it in. It wasn’t very crowded and it had a nice selection of foods to eat. It was a nice place to spend the time in. We ate, drank, and read as the hours slowly marched by. Then well over an hour before the flight was due to begin boarding, we heard the announcement that Icelandair flight 630 was boarding! We gathered up our gear and hustled over to the gate. We arrived just in time for boarding to actually begin.

Business Class on Icelandair isn’t as swanky as it is on longer flights. We didn’t have seats that turned into beds. They merely reclined a bit. No big deal since our flight wasn’t quite five hours long. We settled in and I browsed through the movie choices. There wasn’t much that appealed to me. I did watch “The Fablemans” which Spielberg did. It was good, if a bit sad. After I finished up the movie, I downed a melatonin and tried to get some sleep. I dozed for for less than an hour but at least I got some sleep

After munching on a small Iceland donut, we began descending down to Keflavik International Airport. We didn’t deplane at a gate so we had to bus to the terminal. Then it was a mad race to Passport Control. Our flight wasn’t the only one that had landed. The lines, however, weren’t too bad and we whipped through quickly once our border patrol kid got over his surprise that we were going to be in Iceland for three weeks.

Our forward movement stopped at Baggage Claim. I knew my suitcase was here because I checked my AirTag; however, neither bag was showing up. We waited and waited. Doug was getting nervous as we were suppose to meet the group at 7 AM out in the Arrival area for our drive to Selfoss for breakfast and then on to Landeyjahofn Harbour to catch the ferry for Heimaey Island. Although we arrived before our expected 6:05 AM landing time, we were starting to cut it close.

We needn’t have worried. Our bags finally showed up. We snatched them up and dashed to the Arrivals area. Our pre-trip leader Árni was there waiting for us. Whew! We actually ended up not leaving the airport until close to 8 as we were waiting for other arrivals from three different groups. One lady was arriving early for her trip, others were arriving to begin their main trip, and those in our group to start our pre-trip. Árni stayed behind at 8 to gather up more travelers while a different TL took us out to the bus and got us on our way to Selfoss for breakfast. She took pity on us and gave us quiet time on the ninety minute ride although she did occasional get on the mic to tell us about something. I was grateful as I was struggling to stay awake.

We did have a chance to chat with some in our group. One couple just finished up their Scotland/Ireland trip. They landed at 1 AM this morning and had waited in the airport the entire time. They had my sincere sympathy. That’s a long time to sit at an airport, especially when there are only hard wooden slat chairs to sit on and nothing is open!

The drive to Selfoss was beautiful. I do love this country. It astounded me afresh with its verdant hills mixed with black lava. As we drove, we learned that the volcano that has been erupting for the last month or so had finally stopped spewing lava just yesterday. We could see steam vents in the distance belching billowing white clouds of evaporated water. Compact but rugged Icelandic horses dotted many of the pastures we passed as well as sheep and the “marshmallow” bales of hay. They were covered with colored plastic to preserve the bales from the weather. As we didn’t go into Reykjavik at all, our first glimpses of Iceland were rural. I loved it.

At Hotel Selfoss, we unloaded our luggage and headed inside. Although we were heading to the Westman Islands, our big bags were staying here. We had a chance to swap whatever we needed into our small bag from our large bag. But first we enjoyed the breakfast buffet. I wasn’t very hungry but I did get a bowl of oatmeal and some fruit. I took some things out of my carry-on and put them in my suitcase and put some things from my suitcase (scissors, rosacea cream, hiking shoes….) into my small bag. I swapped my waterproof hiking shoes for my travel sandals. My carry-on was still heavy but maybe a touch lighter.

Then it was back on the bus for the ride to the harbor. We did make two stops to break up the hour plus ride. The best one was at our first waterfall in Iceland. It will be the first of many as Iceland is loaded with beautiful waterfalls. An added bonus for me was I hadn’t seen this one on the last trip. Urridafoss Falls is not a tall falls but it makes up for that in width and volume. More water flows over it into the Pórsa River than any other Icelandic waterfall. The Pórsa River is also the longest river in Iceland. This river is known for its salmon. Seals have been known to swim up the river to dine on that tasty fish. Currently there is a bit of controversy surrounding the river and the falls. Some people want to built a hydroelectric plant here and dam up the river. Others want to preserve its pristine beauty. It’s up for grabs which side will win out.

I thoroughly enjoyed walking along the river and taking in the falls. The turquoise glacial water thundered down them. The warm sun was out from behind cottonball clouds dotting a blue sky. The air was brisk and refreshing. I breathed in great lungfuls of the crisp air. The walk by the falls and river couldn’t have been more enjoyable. Well, maybe if there had been a saga to share about the falls. I learned last time that most waterfalls have stories to go along with them. Iceland IS the land of the saga, after all. Being a retired librarian, I enjoy a good yarn.

As we continued our drive, I kept drifting off to dreamland. I could not keep my eyes open. I had been running all morning on fumes and I was now out of those. With a jerk, I woke up when we stopped for a toilet break and the opportunity to buy some lunch. Originally we were suppose to have lunch on our own once we reached Heimaey Island. However, this past weekend was the big yearly Þjóðhátið music festival and the island was jam-packed with fresh-faced young people who had spent three days listening to music and imbibing. The island population goes from 4,000 to 20,000! Árni was afraid that the few restaurants the town has would be bursting at the seams with festival goers so he suggested we buy a sandwich at our toilet stop or eat on the ferry.

We had just had breakfast (or at least that’s how it felt to me) but I found a sandwich—who could resist something called a pepperoni taco—and a bag of chips. We explored the tiny grocery store a bit and then crossed the street to browse the gift shop there.

Back on the bus we made the final push to the harbor. Iceland definitely has a thing for roundabouts. We must have driven through a dozen or more of them just this morning. Although we were on Ring Road or Highway 1, it was just a two-lane road. We drove through a couple of fishing villages but mostly it was peaceful, pastoral beauty. We did have to backtrack once when we turned off of the Ring Road. Our driver got a call that the road we were on had lots of construction so he turned around and chose a different route. I drifted back to consciousness as we drove into the big, bold village of Landeyjahofn Harbour.

The ferry building wasn’t huge but it was large enough that there was plenty of seating for our group. Doug and I went upstairs where there was a nice view out onto the water. We had our picnic lunch there. Several others in our group followed suit. I have to report that the pepperoni taco was no taco :-). I knew that when I got it as it was on a long bun. It did have pepperoni, cheese, ham, and some type of sauce. It wasn’t bad. I just wasn’t particularly hungry. The chips were good. They were sweet chili, red pepper. They had a good flavor but weren’t spicy at all.

While we munched, we watched for the ferry which was suppose to take off for the island at 1:15. Obviously it was running late as it wasn’t here yet. At 1:30 we were still waiting with no sign of the ship. A much smaller one showed up and deposited a load of merry festival goers but our ferry was still MIA. It was almost 2 o’clock before it finally arrived. It was a sardine can packed with young folk. They spilled out and in a seemingly unending stream, filed through the ferry station. No wonder the ferry was late. It must have taken forever for all of them to board.

Finally the horde of humanity had made its way off the ship and our small group along with a few other people, were able to board. We had our choice of seats which was great. Doug and I sat at a table next to a huge window and watched for puffins and whales. Doug thought he spotted a puffin when we started moving away from the dock but I couldn’t get my monocular on it fast enough to verify.

The trip to Heimaey Island took about 30 minutes. The gentle motion of the ferry as it plowed through the water made it seriously difficult for me to stay awake. It kept rocking me to sleep. Maybe when we go back to the mainland I’ll see more of the trip. I won’t be so exhausted then.

Once we docked, it took no time at all for us to unload. Our local guide for the island met us and took our carry-on luggage to the hotel for us, thank goodness. Árni walked us up to the hotel so we could stretch our legs as well as get the lay of the land.

The fresh air felt good on my tired face and the view from the harbor was spectacular as all views in Iceland are. I fell in love with the country all over again. Of course the most astounding view of all was the mass of people waiting in line to get on the ferry and go back to their lives. After seeing all of the young folk disembarking on the mainland, it astonished us all that there were still so many kids left on the island. They were camped out in sleeping bags, tailgating chairs, sitting on the ground…..they filled up the harbor. I have to admit, they all looked pretty darn tired. Three days and nights of partying will do that to you 🙂

Festival goers waiting for the ferry to go back to the Mainland

The town of Vestmannaeyjum is a cozy harbor village. We followed Árni up the main street from the harbor enjoying the quaint buildings along the way. I particularly enjoyed the “original” Puffin Bar. Puffins are a big draw to the island. The largest company of them is suppose to be on the Westman Islands. I have to say the bar didn’t look open.

I was amazed to find street art in this small village by the sea. There was a lovely mural of a young boy with his toy boat down by the harbor. Another mural displayed a woman’s head. Yet another was bottle like the old-fashioned ship in a bottle. Even small trash receptacles mounted on poles were painted. Each had a different theme. They added a drop of pizazz to the street corners.

We made a quick stop at the Puffin Rescue to inquire about the two Beluga whales they also had. Árni had heard they were sick and no longer on display. We were pleased to find out they were fine. We could come visit them on our free time. They were back in the rescue after spending some time in a pen out in the water close to the harbor. It’s the same pen that Keiko (Free Willy) stayed in when they were trying to release him into the wild. Hopefully it goes better for the Belugas that it did Keiko. He only lived a few months after he was freed.

We meandered up passed Brothers Brewery which was packed with young people. Alcohol is expensive here. They must be well paid because I think a good deal of drinking went on this weekend. We also passed a restaurant that Doug had earmarked for us to eat at. It, too, was filled to the brim. Árni was correct to have us eat before getting to the island. We would have been hard pressed to find a place, I think.

At last we made it to our hotel—Hotel Vestmannaeyjar. I think it’s one of the only hotels on the island. It’s small but nice. Actually, our room is far more spacious than I thought it would be. Plus we don’t have our big bags taking up space either. It does have a water kettle so I was pleased. I had tossed in enough tea bags for three nights just in case there was one. I knew that caffeine jolt would be crucial in helping me stay awake tonight to type 🙂

We couldn’t dwaddle in our rooms as we had to be back downstairs for another walk. I barely had time to get things situated before we had to meet in the lobby. We made it on time though. I only wore my light jacket and worried that I might get chilly. I shouldn’t have. The day was sunny (the original weather forecast had called for rain). By the time we were done, I was sweating. Menopause has really messed up my body temp regulation.

Our walk started right out side the hotel. Árni stood by a pole made of volcanic ash. It demonstrated how deep the ash had been in the street. When the volcano had erupted in 1973. The ash pole at the hotel was 137 cm. Other ash poles are located throughout the village as it all had to be dug out. But they were fortunate in that the actual lava flow was very slow and stopped just short of where we were standing. Árni pointed out that the hill at the end of the street was actually lava. Originally the area had been flat and the road had continued on. Now it was a lava hill. Amazing.

Ash pillar denoting how deep the ash was at this point after the 1973 volcano eruption

Further down we investigated a small house that had been partially destroyed by lava from Eldfell Volcano. The volcano began erupting in January and by the end of March, most of the Blátindur House was buried by lava. It was that slow in moving. A part of the living room remained uncovered by lava. In 2013 the last part of the house collapsed but the village rebuilt it and the village kept it as a symbol of what they had survived.

From there we hiked up the lava hill for a beautiful view of the village as well as the harbor. Signs had been placed along the trail showing where houses and streets had once been. The original Kiwanis Club House was 16 meters below our feet. That was eye opening.

Eldfell & Helgafell Volcanoes above the village

We continued along the trail where I was amazed at how much greenery had sprouted up on the lava. Of course huge chunks still stood as tall, jagged sentinels but much had softened with a cover of green. Lupine had sprouted up and we were catching the tail end of its blooming season. Lupine is an invasive species that some on the island hate and some love.

As we walked we saw the outdoor pen for the Beluga whales and where Keiko had once lived. It was in the curve of a green mountain towards the mouth of the harbor. Further on we saw the site of the old fortress that had been built here in 1586 by the Danish king to protect the island from pirates. It only saw action once when pirates raided the island for slaves. Nothing really was left of the fort. One canon was still on display. Down below the canon was the deep brown church donated to the island by Norway as well as the doctor’s house and the seawater supply tank along with a piece of the old wooden water pipe. The tank was half buried in lava.

The doctor’s house had an interesting history. In 1847 Danish doctor Peter Schleisner came to the island. He discovered that babies were dying at an alarming rate. Along with midwife Solveig Pálsdóttir, the duo figured out that the babies were dying from neonatal tetanus. The mothers were laying diapers out on rocks to dry. The rocks had seagull droppings on them which were filled with the bacteria. The bacteria was entering the babies’ blood via the umbilical cord of the newborns. The two started applying a salve used by Amazonian Indians for healing wounds to the umbilical area on the babies. In the next year only one of the 20 babies born died from neonatal tetanus. Amazing. It’s learning things like this that makes travel so fascinating.

Slowly we wandered back through the harbor area, still inundated with young people and back to the hotel. Although the fresh air had revitalized me somewhat, I was still dragging. It had been a long couple of days.

Back in the room the hot shower felt deliciously decadent. I enjoyed every second of it. The rain shower head beat a lovely rhythm on my head and body. I could have spent hours in there but we had to be downstairs by six for Happy Hour. Couldn’t miss our first Happy Hour of the trip 🙂

We spent a nice 30 minutes chit chatting with various members of our small group as Doug enjoyed his Einstok and I savored my Viking draft. We have quite an eclectic group. Six of us are from Florida. We were all enjoying the cooler weather here. I’d just gotten another heat advisory warning from Tampa. It has been a crazy, hot summer. We also have a brother/sister duo traveling with us. The sister was having problems getting here. Her original flight had been canceled so she was still trying to get here. She is suppose to arrive tomorrow morning on the ferry if all goes well. Fingers crossed for her.

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant which we learned at Happy Hour wasn’t actually a part of the hotel. We had to pay for our drinks as we went. We couldn’t charge them to our rooms. That was okay. Anyway, dinner was lamb. Lamb and fish are staples in Iceland. We will be eating a good deal of both. Although I’m not a big fan of lamb (I grew up with sheep and goats), this was deliciously cooked along with veggies and potatoes. For dessert we had some type of chocolate brownie thing with ice cream and some type of cream. It was all quite good.

Tomorrow morning we have a later start, thank goodness! We were all drooping at dinner. We have our obligatory orientation meeting and then a local guide is walking us through town. I’m sure we will learn many more “volcano” stories which will be fascinating. The schedule did get flipped a bit from our final documents. We are doing our boat ride tomorrow afternoon as the seas are suppose to be calmer. I’m really looking forward to that. And hopefully we will see our first puffins!

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Tales from the Trail

World Travel and Adventures

Category Archives: 2023 Iceland & Greenland

DAY 10: DRIVING TO DAELI AND LIFE ON A HORSE FARM : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 9: STYKKISHOLMUR & THE SNAEFELLSNES PENINSULA : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 8: DRIVING TO STlYKKISHOLMUR : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 7: SELJALANDSFOSS & SKOGAFOSS WATERFALLS PLUS KOTLUJOKULL GLACIER : ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 6: WOOL STUDIO & GOLDEN TRIANGLE: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 5: TRAVELING BACK TO SELFOSS: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 4: WALKS, BOAT RIDES, & BELUGAS ON HEIMAEY ISLAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 3: HEIMAEY ISLAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE

DAY 1 & 2: FLYING TO ICELAND: ICELAND & GREENLAND—QUEST FOR PUFFINS, VIKINGS, & HIDDEN PEOPLE